Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Residents and rescue workers clear rubble from a residential building in Kyiv after overnight Russian drone attacks killed at least three people and wounded dozens more, according to the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Hong Kong (AFP) – A giant inflatable Labubu floats on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour as part of a new installation. Tourists and locals alike snap selfies at a media preview with the elf-like creature that has taken the world by storm, causing Chinese maker Pop Mart’s profits to soar. The installation, which runs until November 1, also includes sculptures of Elmo from Sesame Street, Japanese manga creation Doraemon and McDonald’s mascot Grimace.
Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel alone will decide which countries it will allow to join a planned international security force in Gaza. Under a US-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, a coalition of mainly Arab and Muslim powers is expected to deploy troops in the devastated Palestinian territory.
Taipei (AFP) – Around 130,000 people attend the 23rd Taiwan Pride Parade in Taipei. This year’s theme, “Super Connection: Overcoming Labels, Embracing Differences,” aims to highlight the importance of diversity and inclusion. “Our love is the same, and it deserves to be embraced and accepted,” says attendee Alan Pan.
San Quentin (United States) (AFP) – Held inside a notorious prison among some of California’s most violent felons, the San Quentin Film Festival is not your typical Hollywood affair. The festival, launched last year, offers inmates a chance to create their own movies and meet mainstream filmmakers from the outside. “If we send people out without having resolved their trauma and have no skill set, no degree, no schooling, they’re more likely to reoffend and cause more victims,” says prison warden Chance Andes.
Dublin (AFP) – Left-wing independent Catherine Connolly vows to be “inclusive” after winning the race to be Ireland’s new president, comfortably beating her centrist opponent in a contest marred by record numbers of spoilt ballots. Connolly, 68, secured more than 63 percent of the votes, well ahead of Heather Humphreys of the Fine Gael party on 29.5 percent, according to the official count.
Roscoff (France) (AFP) – Used fishing nets are collected in Breton ports and sent off from western France to Ukraine, where they will be used to cover roads and military infrastructure with the aim of protecting them from Russian drone attacks. To defend against Russian drones, Ukrainians have been covering roads with nets mounted on poles, stretching for hundreds of kilometres. The fishing nets will “have a second life” and “be able to save lives in Ukraine” says Gerard Le Duff, one of the volunteers behind the project.
New York (AFP) – Zohran Mamdani, Democratic Party candidate for the New York mayor seat, delivers a speech outside a mosque denouncing “Islamophobia” in politics. Mamdani makes reference to outgoing New York mayor Eric Adams and former state governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent. “Anti-Muslim sentiment that has grown so endemic in our city that when we hear it, we know not whether the words were spoken by a Republican or a Democrat,” says Mamdani, who is the frontrunner in the campaign.
Bangkok (AFP) – Around a dozen mourners dressed in black hold portraits of Thailand’s late Queen Sirikit outside the Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok, where she had been receiving medical treatment. The mother of the current King Vajiralongkorn and wife of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch died late Friday at the age of 93, the palace said. Sirikit held a dual reputation as a fashionista and the nation’s caring matriarch, with some Western media featuring her on magazine covers and comparing her to former US first lady Jackie Kennedy.
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – A Christmas tree over 30 metres tall and 7.5 tons in weight is erected on Place Kleber in Strasbourg, eastern France, ahead of its traditional Christmas market. “It’s a moment eagerly awaited every year,” says Guillaume Libsig, Strasbourg’s deputy mayor.
New Delhi (AFP) – Hindu devotees bathe in India’s sacred but highly polluted Yamuna river to the mark the first day of Chhath Puja, a four-day long festival dedicated to Hindu sun god Surya.
Bogotá (AFP) – “We do not kneel. We will not take a step back,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro tells his supporters at a rally on Bolivar Square in Bogota, as he and his family are placed on a US sanctions list. The US Treasury has blacklisted Gustavo Petro, first lady Veronica Alcocer, his eldest son Nicolas, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, banning them from travel to the United States and freezing any US assets they hold. The rupture caps months of personal friction between US President Donald Trump and Petro over US deportations and strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of South America.
