Stockholm (AFP) – Every year, dozens of discarded Christmas trees are thrown into Stockholm’s icy waters, which provide a welcome habitat for marine wildlife once sunk to the bottom. Since 2016, more than 1,000 trees have been tied together, weighed down with rocks and deposited into the sea to help restore the endangered ecosystem of the Swedish capital’s waterways.
Cairo (AFP) – After Taiwan elected outspoken pro-sovereignty candidate Lai Ching-te as president on 13 January, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warns that any moves towards independence for the island, which China claims as part of its territory, would be “harshly punished”. Lai has vowed to defend the self-ruled island and key US ally from China’s “intimidation”, and his election sets the stage for four more years increasingly frosty relations between Taipei and Beijing.
Tel Aviv (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that no one would stop Israel from achieving victory in its war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip – including a case brought before the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, alleging Israel’s offensive is in breach of the UN Genocide Convention. It is 100 days since the war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, in which the Palestinian militant group killed around 1,140 and took some 240 hostages, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli sources. In response, Israel’s relentless military campaign has killed at least 23,900 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the strip’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Carmen De Atrato, Chocó (Colombia) (AFP) – Rescuers are working against the clock to find survivors of deadly landslides that claimed dozens of lives, mostly children, in northwestern Colombia. The landslides in the Choco department, which lies on the Pacific Ocean, come after more than 24 hours of intense rain.
Ratchaburi (Thailand) (AFP) – The Nasatta Light Festival, one of Thailand’s largest, returns for its sixth year to dazzle visitors in Ratchaburi province, about 80 minutes from Bangkok. This year’s event features 20 illuminated landscapes and continues until 28 April.
Grindavik (Iceland) (AFP) – A volcano erupts north of the Icelandic fishing village of Grindavik, just hours after local residents were evacuated, as seen in images filmed from an Icelandic Coastguard helicopter. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in almost three years. The most recent occurred on December 18 in the same region, southwest of the capital Reykjavik.
Taipei (AFP) – After voters defied warnings from Beijing and swept him to victory, Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te vows to defend the self-ruled island from “intimidation” from China. Lai — branded by Beijing as a threat to peace in the flashpoint region — pitched himself as the defender of Taiwan’s democratic way of life, but now has to navigate increasingly turbulent relations with communist China.
Mbombela (South Africa) (AFP) – President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa “condemns in the strongest terms the appalling slaughter and genocide of the people of Palestine”, as the International Court of Justice hears South Africa’s case accusing Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention in the Gaza war. The war began after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel which left around 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement which has killed at least 23,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the strip’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Hodeida (Yemen) (AFP) – Thousands march in the Huthi-held Yemeni city of Hodeida to denounce US and UK strikes on the Iran-backed rebels in retaliation for attacks on shipping on the Red Sea. The Huthis have carried out weeks of attacks on Israel-linked shipping in protest against the Israel-Hamas war, and the strikes have heightened fears that Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip could engulf the wider region.
Tainan (Taiwan) (AFP) – Millions of Taiwanese have gone to the polls in the self-ruled island’s presidential election in the face of threats from China that choosing the wrong leader could set the stage for war. Communist China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to bring about “unification”.
