Buenos Aires (AFP) – Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner receives the country’s newly elected vice president, Victoria Villaruel, in congress in Buenos Aires. IMAGES
Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, are repairing their old bicycles for transport due to the shortage of fuel for cars amid war between Israel and Hamas. It comes as Israel and Hamas announced a deal allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce after weeks of all-out war. Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel sparked an air and ground offensive by Israel, which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militants. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attack, according to Israeli officials. In Gaza, more than 13,300 people have been killed in the war, officials in the Hamas-run territory said.
Taunggyi (Myanmar) (AFP) – Brightly-patterned hot air balloons and fireworks light up the night sky as the much-loved Tazaungdaing festival returns to Myanmar’s Taunggyi city after a three-year hiatus. But crowds are staying away from the military-backed event as violent clashes swell across the country. “Many more people should be here. This festival used to be very crowded in the past,” says Nu Nu Sein, a Taunggyi resident.
Brasília (AFP) – “I don’t have to like the president of Chile, Argentina, Venezuela. He doesn’t have to be my friend. He has to be president of his country,” says Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in front of diplomats during a graduation ceremony. The leftist leader makes this statement after the ultraliberal economist Javier Milei – who criticises the South American trade bloc, Mercosur, and has made offensive statements against Lula in recent months – won the presidential elections in Argentina.
Sderot (Israel) (AFP) – Smoke plumes billow following Israeli air strikes on northern Gaza as seen from the Israeli town of Sderot, after Israel and Hamas announced a deal on allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce after weeks of all-out war.
Hậu Giang (Vietnam) (AFP) – Shoreline erosion in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, caused by sand mining and hydropower dams threatens hundreds of thousands of people. The “rice bowl” delta region, where the Mekong empties into the South China Sea, is predicted to run out of sand in just over a decade, but losses to the riverbed are already devastating lives and harming the local economy.
Vanuatu (Vanuatu) (AFP) – An animated map shows the location of a magnitude 6.7 earthquake that struck northern Vanuatu on 21 November according to the United States Geological Survey, but authorities said it was not expected to trigger a tsunami. The quake had a depth of 22 kilometres (14 miles), hitting about 300 km north of the capital Port Vila. Centred near a sparsely populated cluster of islands, the USGS said there was a “low likelihood of casualties and damage” from the tremor.
Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Wounded Palestinians evacuated from the Indonesian hospital in in Beit Lahia arrive at Al-Nasser hospital. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 200 patients had been evacuated from the hospital with the help of the Red Cross, just hours after it was hit by a deadly Israeli strike.
Quito (AFP) – “I want to rest in peace, calmly and peacefully,” says Paola Roldan, an Ecuadorian woman who has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for three years and who is advocating euthanasia in her country. Roldan, 42, filed a lawsuit before court last August against an article of the Ecuadorian penal code that sentences homicide to 10 and 13 years in prison.
Caracas (AFP) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro calls Argentina’s ultra-liberal Javier Milei a “neo-Nazi”, a day after Milei won the country’s presidential election.
