Friday, June 27, 2025
Six In The Morning Friday 27 June 2025
Tehran is coming back to life, but its residents are deeply shaken
Lyse Doucet
In the heart of the Iranian capital, the Boof cafe serves up refreshing cold drinks on a hot summer's day.
They must be the most distinctive iced Americano coffees in this city – the cafe sits in a leafy corner of the long-shuttered US embassy.
Its high cement walls have been plastered with anti-American murals ever since Washington severed relations with Tehran in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis – which still cast a long shadow over this tortuous relationship.
‘Basically impossible to get them back’: Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children is a war crime, say experts
As territories shift and divide families, desperate parents are travelling to Russia to find their children, many of whom have been moved into military camps or orphanages
Fri 27 Jun 2025 05.00 BST
As many as 35,000 Ukrainian children are still missing and thought to be held in Russia or Russian-occupied territories, according to an American team of experts, with families saying they are being forced to take desperate and risky measures to try to rescue them.
As Russian forces began their invasion in February 2022, children were abducted from care homes, from the battlefield after the death of their parents, or under coercion directly from their families.
Russia has rejected demands for the children to be returned, with an official accusing Ukraine of “staging a show on the topic of lost children” during ceasefire talks in Turkey this month.
Teen in Germany charged over Taylor Swift stadium plot
German federal prosecutors have charged a teenager with aiding in the preparation of a suspected terrorist attack targeting a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last summer.
Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe on Friday said judges had indicted a teenager accused of having helped to plot a foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year,
The US pop star canceled three scheduled concerts in Vienna as part of her Eras tour in August 2024 after the arrest of two young men suspected of planning a terrorist attack.
'Slaughter masquerading as aid': MSF slams US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Medical non-profit Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday slammed a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme in the devastated Gaza Strip as "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid". More than 500 people have been killed since the group's operations began, health authorities say, with witnesses reporting Israeli troops shooting into gathered crowds nearly every day.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on Friday for a controversial Israel- and US-backed relief effort in Gaza to be halted, branding it "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid".
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating last month, "is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies", MSF said in a statement.
It said more than 500 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip while seeking food in recent weeks.
‘The Caspian Sea is shrinking. It is visible with the naked eye’
Kazakh ecologists and environmental activists worry that the Caspian Sea’s levels are set to decline further.
During his childhood, Adilbek Kozybakov’s mother always kept a jar of sturgeon caviar in the fridge.
Each day, she would spoon it on small pieces of bread and butter for him and his siblings. Caviar would keep them in good health, she believed.
Video shows subway arson had all the makings of catastrophe, yet no one seriously hurt.
On the morning of May 31, a subway train on Seoul Subway Line No. 5 was moments away from becoming a disaster zone.
At 8:42 a.m., just after entering the tunnel beneath the Han River between Yeouinaru and Mapo stations, a 67-year-old man pulled a plastic bottle from his backpack and poured gasoline down the aisle of the fourth car.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Six In The Morning Thursday 26 June 2025
Hegseth says US strikes on Iran were 'historically successful' after ayatollah downplays impact
Summary
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth calls US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites at the weekend "historically successful"
Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Hegseth cites various assessments, including from the CIA and the UN's nuclear watchdog
Hegseth also attacks the media, after a leaked intelligence report earlier this week suggested the strikes' impact may have been limited
The update comes after Iran's supreme leader said the US "failed to achieve anything significant" with the nuclear strikes
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also claims victory over Israel - and says Iran delivered a "heavy slap" to the US by attacking a US base in Qatar
So has Iran's nuclear programme been destroyed, or merely set back? We still don't know, writes our correspondent Frank Gardner
In a post on his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump slams what he calls "fake news reporters" from CNN and the New York Times and says they should be fired "immediately".
Trump accuses them of being "BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!".
Trump has repeatedly attacked CNN and the New York Times for its reporting of a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment that questioned the effectiveness of the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.
A street in Gaza, a map of dreams, and the people desperate to live
Thu 26 Jun 2025 10.00 BST
Before it was bombed into a long grey line of rubble and dust cutting across Gaza City, Omar al-Mukhtar street was full of life – shoppers in the day, friends and families on evening outings after dark.
Running from east to west through the city, this artery road is home to some of Gaza’s most significant landmarks.
Spain: Top court backs amnesty for Catalan separatists
Spain's Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld key provisions of a disputed amnesty law for Catalan separatists involved in a failed 2017 push for the Catalonia's independence.
Under the law, more than 300 people have been pardoned.
"This is magnificent news for Spain," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters in Brussels, adding that the amnesty served "to guarantee Spain's unity as well as our development and prosperity and coexistence between citizens and regions."
'Trump is eager to forge peace in the Middle East,' Palestinian FM says
At least eight killed in deadly Kenya protests: What we know
Several protesters were killed and at least 400 others were wounded on Wednesday when antigovernment protests in the capital, Nairobi turned deadly.
Kenyan officials have not disclosed the number of casualties. Reports from media and rights groups varied, placing the number of dead between eight and 16.
Voters afraid of ‘scary foreigners’ propel Sanseito before election
By AKARI SUGIYAMA/ Staff Writer
June 26, 2025 at 17:49 JST
Sohei Kamiya insists that he and his rising Sanseito political party are not encouraging hatred and discrimination against foreigners, despite running election campaigns featuring anti-immigrant rhetoric and warnings about foreign-related crimes.
“We are not promoting xenophobia,” Kamiya said at a news conference on June 22. “Japanese people feel unease and dissatisfaction because there are no established rules for accepting foreigners.”
Although Sanseito has faced criticism and protests over its policies, its “Japanese first” stance has steadily gained traction around Japan, and the party could make a move on the national stage in the Upper House election next month.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Six In The Morning Wednesday 25 June 2025
Kenya police battle protesters demanding president's resignation
Summary
Police and thousands of protesters engage in running battles in Kenya's capital Nairobi and other cities
At least 50 people injured, the BBC understands
Protesters demand the president's resignation
Live TV and radio coverage of the protests has been banned and some stations taken off air
President Ruto orders police to secure the nation and protect lives
Police warn against attempts to storm the president's office and parliament
Schools and businesses are closed for fear of violence
Anger over forced abductions
Another reason why people have been marching today is that Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, ever since the youth-led protests against a series of planned tax rises on 25 June 2024 - exactly a year ago.
More than 80 people were abducted between last June and January this year, according to a state-funded rights group.
A few have been released in recent weeks, and there are growing calls for all who have been abducted to be freed.
‘Like a trap’: NHS surgeon describes death of nephew, 16, at Gaza food point
Mohammad went missing after becoming separated from his uncles. His family later found his body mutilated beyond recognition
Wed 25 Jun 2025 14.36 BST
Mohammad’s family spent four days searching for him after he became separated from his uncles at a food distribution point in northern Gaza. They clung to the chance that he had been arrested by the Israel Defense Forces, as the boy was not among the corpses recovered after troops opened fire.
But eventually they found his body mutilated beyond recognition, identifiable only by his electrician father’s work shoes. Mohammad was 16, and his family had not seen a bag of flour for more than a month. His uncle Mo, who was born in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, received news of his nephew’s disappearance in the UK, where he has worked as an NHS consultant for the past 20 years.
Thailand moves to make recreational cannabis illegal again
Three years after decriminalizing cannabis, Thailand is on course to reclassify it as a narcotic, potentially collapsing a $1 billion industry and shutting down thousands of cannabis shops in popular tourist areas.
Thailand is set to reclassify cannabis as a narcotic only three years after the country became one of Asia's first to decriminalize its recreational use.
Coming in the wake of a government coalition split, the major policy reversal would renew controls on the recreational use of cannabis and shut down a booming $1 billion (€860 million) industry.
Study finds child vaccination rates are dropping globally, threatening millions
Researchers said on Tuesday that vaccination rates among children are dropping across the world, increasing the risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases, as economic inequality, misinformation, and foreign aid cuts threaten to stymie decades of progress.
Efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases are faltering across the world due to economic inequality, Covid-era disruptions and misinformation, putting millions of lives at risk, research warned Wednesday.
These trends all increase the threat of future outbreaks of preventable diseases, the researchers said, while sweeping foreign aid cuts threaten previous progress in vaccinating the world's children.
Japan holds first missile drill to backdrop of China tensions
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
June 25, 2025 at 15:48 JST
Japan conducted its first domestic drill of a long-range missile on June 24, a move that underscores Tokyo’s growing focus on maritime defense in response to China’s expanding military presence.
The Ground Self-Defense Force launched a nonexplosive Type 88 surface-to-ship missile from a test range here on the southern coast of Hokkaido. This marks the first time that a missile with a capability exceeding a 100-kilometer range has been fired within Japan’s borders.
Australian Court Says Journalist Critical of Israel Was Wrongfully Fired
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation violated labor law when it took Antoinette Lattouf off the air after she posted on Instagram about Gaza, the court ruled.
An Australian court ruled on Wednesday that the country’s main public broadcaster had illegally fired a journalist for reasons that included a social media post critical of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
The journalist, Antoinette Lattouf, had sued the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, saying it had taken her off the air in December 2023 for expressing a political opinion. The ABC removed her after she made an Instagram post highlighting a Human Rights Watch report that accused Israel of “using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.”