Odesa region (Ukraine) (AFP) – At least 10 people have died in Ukraine after storms raged across the country’s south on November 27, dumping up to 25 centimetres of snow. Severe weather across the region also impacted parts of Moldova, southern Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula, where high winds and heavy rains damaged energy infrastructure and disrupted transport networks.
Sydney (AFP) – Showing off a sixth cricket World Cup at Sydney Cricket Ground, Australian captain Pat Cummins says he’s “still on a high” a week after his team beat hosts India. The final was played in front of nearly 100,000 fans in Ahmedabad, where most of those in attendance were cheering for India, who had won all 10 of their previous matches in the tournament.
Hong Kong (AFP) – Hong Kong is swamped in trash — with 13 dumpsites filled to the brim, and the final three landfills set to run out of capacity by 2030. The city’s legislature passed a bill last month to implement a two-stage blanket ban on various plastic products. The idea is “to build a plastic-free culture”, authorities said, but environmentalists are worried that the ban’s benefits could be undermined as the city would merely be replacing plastic waste with those of other materials if city continues with its “throwaway culture”. Campaigners have called a lifestyle change to reuse.
El-Arish (Egypt) (AFP) – Wounded and sick Palestinians are helped onto a plane at Egypt’s El-Arish airport, before being flown to the United Arab Emirates where they will receive treatment. This is the third batch of medical evacuees taken in by the Gulf state, which has committed to receive 2,000 Palestinians, including 1,000 children. Gaza’s hospitals have been badly impacted by Israel’s military operation in the territory, which was started in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. The assault on Israeli settlements killed 1,200 people and saw a further 240 taken hostage by the group. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says Israel’s sustained air and ground campaign has killed nearly 15,000.
Oslo (AFP) – “The Oslo Accord is gone” says Jan Egeland, a former peace negotiator who helped draw up the 1993 agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Speaking as a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas approaches its end, a window in which 50 hostages were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, Egeland calls for “an end to this dirty idea that you can and should exchange hostages for humanitarian access to children.”
Wellington (AFP) – Former airline executive Christopher Luxon is sworn in as New Zealand’s next prime minister. He heads a three-way coalition, in which his two deputy prime ministers, David Seymour and Winston Peters, will each hold the position for half of the government’s three-year term. The two deputies have in the past traded barbs and been involved in high-profile social media spats, but Luxon has downplayed the friction. National’s election win in October brought the curtain down on six years of Jacinda Ardern’s Labour party.
London (AFP) – Migration to the UK needs to “come down to more sustainable levels” says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, after figures from the Office for National Statistics showed net migration to the UK hit a record high in 2022. The figures have added to the pressure on Sunak, whose Conservative party has vowed to reduce new arrivals.
Petah Tikva (Israel) (AFP) – Eleven hostages freed by Hamas, including nine children, “are undergoing a medical and emotional evaluation,” says Efrat Bron-Harlev, CEO of the Scheider Children’s Medical Center in Israel. Their “physical condition… is now stable” she adds. The hostages were released during a four-day truce agreed by Hamas and Israel, which has also seen Palestinian prisoners freed. The pause in fighting is the first since the October 7 attack in which Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 240 hostages. Israel’s response, a sustained air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, has killed nearly 15,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Dehradun (India) (AFP) – India’s military brought in specialised equipment Sunday as efforts to free 41 trapped workers in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand entered a third week, with digging ongoing in three directions after repeated setbacks to the operation.
Ramat Gan (Israel) (AFP) – Itai Pessach, a doctor at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre, says the freed hostages received on the morning of Sunday 26 November do not need emergency medical treatment after they were released from captivity in Gaza late Saturday. Hamas’s October 7 attack sparked an air and ground offensive by Israel, which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militants. In Gaza, nearly 15,000 people have been killed in the war, officials in the Hamas-run territory said. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel during the October 7 attack and around 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. SOUNDBITE
