Friday, October 31, 2025
Six In The Morning Friday 31 October 2025
Sudan’s RSF accused of ‘PR stunt’ after arresting fighters behind civilian killings
Reports of indiscriminate violence and ethnic targeting in El Fasher have led to growing global outrage
Fri 31 Oct 2025 14.40 GMT
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces claim to have arrested several of their fighters after outrage over the extent of killing in the city of El Fasher continues to build.
But the paramilitary group’s move has been met with scepticism from human rights campaigners and the Sudanese who see it as an attempt to temper criticism over the violence.
Netherlands: D66 party beats Wilders in tight election — ANP
Richard Connor with AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters
A nail-bitting election in the Netherlands is likely to culminate with supporters of nationalist Geert Wilders losing to the centrist D66 party, led by 38-year-old Rob Jetten.
Local news agency ANP said its tally showed that Wilders' far-right Freedom Party (PVV) could no longer close the gap, despite D66 holding only a razor-thin majority of some 15,000 votes.
"I am incredibly happy that ... we have become the biggest party in this election," Jetten told reporters. "A historic result for the D66. At the same time, I feel a great responsibility."
At least 700 dead in Tanzania's post-election protests, opposition says
Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed in Tanzania after taking to the streets to protest this week’s presidential election, which saw the increasingly authoritarian incumbent, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, run unopposed for another term after her main challengers were jailed or barred from standing.
Some 700 people have been killed in three days of election protests in Tanzania, the main opposition party said Friday, with protesters still on the streets in the midst of an internet blackout.
“As we speak the figure for deaths in Dar (es Salaam) is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700,” John Kitoka, spokesman from the main opposition party Chadema, said.
Indigenous Australians celebrate historic state treaty
Australia's state of Victoria has passed the country's first treaty with Indigenous peoples, a landmark act of recognition long denied to the nation's first inhabitants.
Cheers and applause rang through Victoria's parliament as lawmakers passed the bill late on Thursday night, a deeply symbolic moment that caused many onlookers to burst into tears.
The treaty will establish an elected assembly of Indigenous representatives, support a truth-telling process to address past grievances, and form an advisory body focused on erasing health inequalities.
'Visibility carries a risk'
Threatened with ICE raids, US communities consider cancelling Dia de los Muertos events
For 44 years, a nighttime procession has snaked through the heart of the Mission District, San Francisco's historic Latino neighbourhood.
Aztec dancers lead the way, followed by thousands of revellers, adorned in marigolds and face paint that transforms the living into a parade of colourful skulls.
The celebration marks Dia de los Muertos, a holiday celebrated in Mexico and throughout Latin America to honour the dead.
Xi Delivers Veiled Warning to Nations Not to Take the U.S.’s Side
At an Asia-Pacific summit, the Chinese leader urged countries to “resist unilateral bullying,” an appeal that seemed at odds with his country’s recent actions.
David Pierson reported from Gyeongju, South Korea, and Berry Wang from Hong Kong
China’s leader Xi Jinping, the de facto geopolitical heavyweight at an Asia-Pacific economic summit, on Friday courted countries for trade and investment, but also implicitly warned them not to join the United States in reducing the world’s reliance on Chinese supply chains.
President Trump’s departure from South Korea a day earlier meant that Mr. Xi was the sole superpower leader at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the city of Gyeongju. At the opening of the meeting, Mr. Xi could be seen smiling and shaking hands with world leaders and economic and finance ministers who came up to greet him.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Six In The Morning Thursday 30 October 2025
Russian army chiefs torturing and executing soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine, report says
Investigation lists 101 superiors accused of tactics such as using drones to ‘finish’ off retreating troops and sending soldiers on death missions
Thu 30 Oct 2025 10.45 GMT
Russian commanders are executing or deliberately sending to their deaths soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine, according to a new investigation by the independent outlet Verstka, which paints a bleak picture of internal violence within the Russian army.
Drawing on testimonies from serving soldiers, relatives of the dead, leaked videos and official complaint records, Verstka said it had identified 101 Russian servicemen accused of murdering, torturing or fatally punishing their own comrades. The outlet said it had verified at least 150 deaths, though they said they believed the true tally to be far higher.
Tanzania tells students to stay home after tense election
Kieran Burke with Reuters, AFP
Government workers and students have been told to stay home after violence marred voting in the East African country. President Samia Suluhu Hassan is widely expected to win a second term.
The streets of Tanzania's largest city Dar es Salaam were reported to be quiet early on Thursday, a day after a general election marred by violence.
There were protests in the East African state's capital and other cities on Wednesday over the exclusion of opposition candidates. While results are still to come, President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to cement her position for a second term in office.
Her party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has governed since Tanzania's independence in 1961.
Israeli army says remains of two hostages handed over to Red Cross in Gaza
The Israeli army on Thursday said the remains of two hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza hours after Hamas's armed wing said it would transfer their remains as demanded under the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
The Israeli army on Thursday said the remains of two more hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza.
The identities of the deceased hostages have not been revealed and the IDF requested that "the public act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families", in a post on X.
The handover to the Red Cross came hours after Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said it "will hand over the bodies of two Israeli prisoners" in a message on its Telegram channel.
Delhi cloud seeding fails as city covered in thick smog
WWI soldiers’ messages in a bottle found on Australian beach more than 100 years later
Story by the Associated Press
Messages in a bottle written by two Australian soldiers a few days into their voyage to the battlefields of France during World War I have been found more than a century later on Australia’s coast.
The Brown family found the Schweppes-brand bottle just above the waterline at Wharton Beach near Esperance in Western Australia state on Oct. 9, Deb Brown said on Tuesday.
Revealed: ICE violates its own policy by holding people in secretive rooms for days or weeks
Thu 30 Oct 2025 11.00 GMT
US immigration officials have been increasingly detaining people in small, secretive holding facilities for days or even weeks at a time in violation of federal policy, a Guardian investigation has found.
These holding facilities – located at ICE offices, in federal buildings and other locations around the country – are typically used to detain people after they have been arrested but before they are transferred or released. In many cases, they consist of small concrete rooms with no beds and are designed to only be used for a few hours.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Six In The Morning Wednesday 29 October 2025
People stuck on roofs after Jamaica's worst hurricane, says minister, as storm heads to Bahamas
Summary
Much of Jamaica is without power or phone service after the country's strongest-ever hurricane, our correspondent in Kingston says
Nick Davis reports floods, mudslides, roofs being ripped from buildings, and "palm trees tossed like toothpicks"
After crossing Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa hit Cuba, bringing 115mph winds and heavy rain and warnings of "life-threatening" storm surges
"The night was terrifying," one man in Cuba tells us. "It sounded like a tornado. I was awake all night"
The hurricane is now moving north-east towards the Bahamas and Bermuda
Twenty people killed in Haiti flooding, AFP reports
At least 20 people - including 10 children - have died in river floods in Haiti, local authorities have told AFP news agency.
A further 10 people are missing, the country's civil defence agency says.
Funerals across Gaza as Israel violates truce, kills 104 Palestinians
By Edna Mohamed and Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
- Israel says it has “resumed enforcing ceasefire” after at least 104 people were killed in strikes across Gaza, including at least 46 children, according to medical sources.
- US President Donald Trump says Israel “hit back” after a soldier was “taken out” but claims “nothing is going to jeopardise” the ceasefire. He also says Hamas has “to behave”.
- The killings in Gaza come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful” strikes following an exchange of gunfire in Rafah in southern Gaza. The Israeli military later said an Israeli soldier was killed.
Strikes on Gaza followed days of hawkish rhetoric from Israeli politicians
Over the days leading up to the latest strikes on Gaza, we saw a build-up of rhetoric from Israeli politicians.
Those comments saw Hamas accused of manipulating the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, of withholding the bodies of Israeli captives, of foot-dragging and not doing what it was supposed to.
Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders
Wed 29 Oct 2025 13.15 GMT
When Google and Amazon negotiated a major $1.2bn cloud-computing deal in 2021, their customer – the Israeli government – had an unusual demand: agree to use a secret code as part of an arrangement that would become known as the “winking mechanism”.
The demand, which would require Google and Amazon to effectively sidestep legal obligations in countries around the world, was born out of Israel’s concerns that data it moves into the global corporations’ cloud platforms could end up in the hands of foreign law enforcement authorities.
Sudan: WHO 'appalled' by RSF maternity ward massacre
Jon Shelton | Richard Connor with AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters
The World Health Organization has said 460 people were killed in a hospital by RSF militants over the weekend. The news comes amid reports of ethnic killings as paramilitaries gain ground in North Darfur.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday condemned reports of the killing of hundreds of individuals and their companions at a maternity ward in el-Fashar, Sudan, over the weekend.
In a statement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "WHO is appalled and deeply shocked by reports of the tragic killing of more than 460 patients and companions at Saudi Maternity Hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, following recent attacks and the abduction of health workers."
Dutch voters head to polls in high-stakes election testing populism’s grip
The Netherlands votes Wednesday in a pivotal national election that will determine whether the country doubles down on the anti-immigration populism of Geert Wilders or shifts back toward centrist politics. The result is seen as a bellwether for the strength of Europe’s far right as nationalist movements surge across Britain, France and Germany.
Polls opened Wednesday in a Dutch vote offering a choice between doubling down on the anti-immigration nationalism of populist Geert Wilders, who sank the last conservative coalition after a fractious two years, or a return to the centre.
With nationalist parties topping polls in Britain, France and Germany, the Dutch vote is a test of whether populism can expand its reach or whether it has peaked in parts of Europe.
Hegseth urges swift Japanese defense spending boost in talks
By MIZUKI SATO/ Staff Writer
October 29, 2025 at 18:48 JST
Visiting U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth pressed his Japanese counterpart on Oct. 29 in talks at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo to speedily increase the nation's defense spending, as promised to the United States.
In the meeting, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi conveyed Japan’s commitment to increase its defense budget and strengthen its defense capabilities based on the summit held the previous day between Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and U.S. President Donald Trump.