Beijing (AFP) – China says Afghanistan’s Taliban government will need to introduce political reforms, improve security and mend relations with its neighbouring countries before receiving full diplomatic recognition. “I believe that as the concerns of all parties receive stronger responses, diplomatic recognition of the Afghan government will naturally follow,” says China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – “We can’t turn away from what is evidently a moral failure in the face of the international community” says Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), after visiting the European hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. Spoljaric’s visit comes as Israel pushes its military operation south on a fourth day of fighting since the end of a week-long truce with Hamas.
Daymaniyat Islands (Oman) (AFP) – On a sailing boat anchored off Oman’s pristine Daymaniyat Islands, volunteer divers pull on wetsuits, check their scuba tanks and then take turns plunging into the clear turquoise water. They are diving for a reason: to remove the massive fishing nets damaging an unusually resilient coral reef system that is seen as more likely than most to survive rising sea temperatures.
Beverley (United Kingdom) (AFP) – A struggling dairy farm in Yorkshire in the north of England has been overwhelmed with bookings after offering a cow cuddling experience. The farm made the decision to diversify and expand to cow cuddling and conservation after struggling to make a profit out of dairy farming. A fall in the price of milk, inflation and flooding made it difficult for the farm to return a profit.
Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – “We are facing a health disaster in the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. We need a real support for the health system,” says Hamas’s health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra. Fighting between Hamas and Israel began on 7 October when Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 16,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.
Tel Aviv (AFP) – Ofir Gendelman, an Israeli Government Spokesperson, lays out the two conditions which if met would lead to the end of the war on Gaza, during a press briefing in Tel Aviv. Fighting between Hamas and Israel began on 7 October when Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 16,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.
Agam (Indonesia) (AFP) – Mount Marapi on the Indonesian island of Sumatra spews a tower of ash into the sky in an eruption that started on Sunday.
Langelund (Denmark) (AFP) – A World War Two era bomb has been detonated in waters near Langeland, a Danish island to the south of the country. Sappers from the Danish navy placed the bomb, which was initially caught in fishing nets, back in the water and attached a 10kg explosive charge to it, allowing for a controlled detonation.
Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – On donkey carriages, by car, bicycle or simply by foot, thousands of residents from eastern Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, on the border with Israel, are fleeing the area after fighting resumed between Israel and Hamas. Hamas militants from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials. In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and has waged a relentless air, sea and ground offensive that has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s Hamas government.
Dubai (AFP) – Britain’s King Charles III warns that the dangers of climate change are “no longer distant risks” as he opens the UN’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai. Charles kicks off two days of speeches by heads of state and government in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, where the future of fossil fuels has taken centre stage.
