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Hong Kong (AFP) – A recent ruling by Hong Kong’s top court in favour of recognising same-sex partnerships has raised hopes for the city’s LGBTQ community, with the government given two years to come up with a legal framework. The case brought by jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham was the first time Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal has directly addressed the issue of same-sex marriage. Henry Li, following in the footsteps of his late partner Edgar Ng, is among those who have struggled for LGBTQ rights in the city.

Brussels (AFP) – EU leaders call for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” in Israel’s war with Hamas to get aid into Gaza, after hours of negotiations at a summit of the bloc in Brussels. The Gaza strip has been under sustained Israeli shelling since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct 7.

The Hague (AFP) – The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki says a “humanitarian pause” would not alleviate the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. Speaking at a press conference in The Hague, al-Maliki accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza and called on ICC prosecutors to conduct an investigation. The Gaza Strip has been under sustained Israeli shelling since a deadly Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Paris (AFP) – “We want you and all the world to be human and do whatever you can to bring them back home,” says Moran Betzer Tayar, wracked by anguish after the kidnapping of her nephew and his wife by Palestinian Hamas militants on 7 October. The 54-year-old is on a European tour with other relatives of hostages taken by Hamas during a raid that killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians. Israel’s retaliation has so far killed more than 6,500 people in Gaza, mostly civilians. There are fears the toll could further soar if Israel pushes ahead with a widely-expected ground invasion in a bid to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages.

Lewiston (United States) (AFP) – Police in the US state of Maine are waging a sprawling manhunt for a gunman who killed at least 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar, according to the state’s governor. The rampage is the deadliest mass shooting so far this year in America.

Seoul (AFP) – Ahead of the one year anniversary of the Halloween tragedy in South Korea’s Seoul, the narrow alleyway where nearly 160 people were crushed to death has been designated a “Memorial Alley”. On 29 October 2022, tens of thousands of people — mostly in their 20s and 30s — had been out to enjoy the country’s first post-pandemic holiday celebrations but the night turned deadly in Seoul’s Itaewon district with no effective crowd control and bungled official responses to calls for help.

Alma al-Shaab (Lebanon) (AFP) – Soldiers and volunteers are battling a blaze on Lebanon’s southern border caused by Israeli bombing overnight, according to local officials. Persistent rocket fire and artillery exchanges across Israel’s border with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah have raised fears of a new front in the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. Israel has bombed Gaza for more than two weeks after Hamas gunmen carried out the worst attack in Israel’s 75-year history. More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attack and 200 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. Over 6,500 have been killed in Gaza since, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Mexico City (AFP) – Hurricane Otis killed at least 27 people as it lashed the beach resort town of Acapulco on Mexico’s Pacific coast as a scale-topping category 5 storm, says the country’s security minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez.

Maya Biosphere Reserve (Guatemala) (AFP) – Guatemalans are waging an unequal but hopeful struggle to recover land deforested by illegal cattle ranching and logging in the heart of the country’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America.

Al-Mahra (Yemen) (AFP) – A tropical cyclone has flooded roads and submerged cars in the city of Al Gaydah, on the coast of Yemen’s southeastern Al Mahra governorate. At least two people were killed and around 10,000 others displaced across the war-torn country. Rescue efforts have been hampered by the breakdown of telecommunications.

Khorsabad (Iraq) (AFP) – A dig in northern Iraq has unearthed a 2,700-year-old alabaster sculpture of the winged Assyrian deity Lamassu, which was found largely intact despite its large dimensions. Only the head was missing, which was already in the collection of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad after being confiscated by customs officers from smugglers in the 1990s. The sculpture escaped destruction by Islamic State jihadists which overran the area in 2014, thanks to the city’s residents who hid it before fleeing to government-held areas.

Paris (AFP) – The wax statue of American star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is being given a makeover in Paris’ Grevin Museum, in hopes of obtaining a more true-to-life complexion after complaints that it was too light-skinned.