Antarctica (Antarctica) (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Chile’s President Gabriel Boric visit the German Antarctic Receiving Station during a three-day tour of the icy continent aimed at witnessing firsthand “the deadly impact of the climate crisis,” according to Guterres.
Galápagos (Ecuador) (AFP) – Ecuadoran military seize about five tons of drugs from a semi-submersible vessel intercepted off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, according to Navy officials.
Rome (AFP) – The dogs are kings and queens at “Fiuto”, Italy’s first dogs’ restaurant, where humans’ favourite four-legged friends have their own menu and eat at the table with their owners.
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – Lines are already forming in front of the mulled wine stands as the 453rd Strasbourg Christmas market opens its doors. In the Alsatian capital, tourists are strolling the streets, as are the police, who are mobilized in large numbers, with over 1,000 agents in charge of security to ensure the market runs smoothly.
Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Director of Communications at the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian side, says more than 300 trucks will enter today as a truce between Israel and Hamas takes hold after nearly seven weeks after an unprecedented Hamas attack sparked an air and ground offensive by Israel, which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militants. In Gaza nearly 15,000 people, 6,150 of them children, 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.
Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinians, stranded in Egypt since the beginning of the war, return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing as a four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war takes effect, with hostages set to be released in exchange for prisoners in the first major reprieve in seven weeks of fighting that have claimed thousands of lives. After Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing about 240 hostages, Israel vowed to “crush” Hamas and unleashed a withering military campaign that Gaza’s Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people in the coastal territory.
Pretoria (AFP) – South Africa’s ex-Olympic runner, Oscar Pistorius, has been granted parole and will be released from prison in January next year. This parole decision comes a decade after Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in a crime that gripped the world.
Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – In the south of the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, a group of young Palestinians put on an acrobatic show in a school converted into a shelter for displaced families.
Bogotá (AFP) – More than 2,000 stuffed toys have been placed on Plaza Bolivar, in Bogota, to raise awareness about the high rates of sexual abuse of children in Colombia. More than 57 cases of sexual abuse of children are registered in the country every day. The event is part of an initiative led by the international organization Aldeas Infantiles SOS.
Utrecht (Netherlands) (AFP) – Chanting “you are not alone”, around 1,000 people gather in the western city of Utrecht Thursday to protest the shock win of far-right Geert Wilders in Dutch elections.
