London (AFP) – Kew Gardens in southwest London presents the eleventh edition of Christmas at Kew, its popular festive light show featuring 22 artistic installations in a nocturnal tour of the botanic gardens, on display until January 7. This year’s show focuses on environmental protection, and all the lighting structures are inspired by the natural world.
León (Mexico) (AFP) – The International Balloon Festival, which features 200 balloons from 23 countries, kicks off in the city of Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. This year the event is held between November 17th and November 20th.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Residents of Rocinha, one of Brazil’s largest favelas, are enduring the country’s ongoing heat wave without electricity. The heatwave, persisting for several days, continues to impact Brazil, particularly in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, where the heat index reached a record 58.5°C.
Genf (AFP) – A lot of money ends up in streaming services and ‘black boxes’, laments ABBA songwriter Björn Ulvaeus, who is joining the United Nations in launching a new online platform to help musicians understand their intellectual property rights and get the credit they deserve in the digital age. CLIP – Creators Learn Intellectual Property – is free to use and aims to show artists how to ensure they are properly rewarded for their work, as content is increasingly consumed online.
Al-Arisch (AFP) – Ambulances and medical supplies funded by the European Union and Saudi Arabia are arriving at El-Arish airport in North Sinai, Egypt, for Gaza, where more than half of hospitals are no longer functional due to combat, damage or shortages. More than 12,000 have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s punishing air and ground offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel’s campaign was launched in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, which Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people.
London (AFP) – Ukrainian teenagers are awarded the 2023 Children’s Peace Prize for their work supporting refugee children fleeing war. Sofia Tereshchenko, Anastasiia Feskova and Anastasiia Demchenko, who only attended virtually, developed two apps to help young people find safety and settle in countries they have fled to.
Nuijamaa (AFP) – Finland has announced that it will close half of its border crossings with Russia, accusing Moscow of trying to destabilise the country by allowing undocumented migrants to cross the border.
London (AFP) – A birthday party is held in front of the charity Save the Children International’s headquarters in London on the day that Emily Hand, an Irish-Israeli girl believed to have been taken hostage to Gaza on October 7, turned nine years old. Emily was one of around 240 hostages taken during Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and responded with a relentless air and ground campaign on Gaza that has killed 12,000 people, including 5,000 children, according to the Hamas government.
Quito (AFP) – Congressman Henry Kronfle is elected President of the new Congress of Ecuador, with the support of former governor Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and the party of President-elect Daniel Noboa, who will be sworn November 23. IMAGES
Modiin (Israel) (AFP) – Thousands of people march to demand the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza who were abducted by Hamas during its bloody attack on southern Israel on 7 October. The protest march set out on 14 November from Tel Aviv en route to Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, where a mass protest is planned for 18 November.
Moscow (AFP) – Russia’s Defence Ministry says it is inflicting heavy losses on Ukrainian troops at the Dnipro river and that Russian troops fighting further to the east had “taken up more favourable positions”. Igor Konashenkov, the ministry’s spokesperson, says Ukraine “lost more than 460 servicemen” in the assault, and that its armed forces remain on the western bank. A sustained Ukrainian breakthrough across the frontline waterway would mark a significant success for Kyiv, which earlier said it had carried out a series of successful attacks on the Dnipro’s Russian-occupied eastern bank.
General Santos (Philippines) (AFP) – People run for cover as the ground shakes around them in a shopping mall in General Santos City, less than a hundred kilometres from the epicentre of a magnitude 6.7 earthquake that shook the southern Philippines, as shown in amateur-filmed images. There were no immediate reports of casualties but the quake was felt across a wide area of the mountainous island.
