Six In The Morning Sunday 12 November 2023

Gaza’s main hospital uncontactable as second hospital says it is out of fuel

 

Jews on French march say last month has left them anxious and scared

Hugh Schofield

BBC News, Paris

 

Tens of thousands of people have marched through central Paris in a demonstration against antisemitism. A massive crowd filled the Invalides esplanade then headed across the Left Bank towards the Senate building.

Many were Jews; but many non-Jews were there too, answering the call for a big display of support for France’s “Republican” values, and the notion that no-one should be singled out because of their religion or ethnic type.

Jews on the march said the last month had left them feeling anxious and scared. Many in their day-to-day lives have taken steps to avoid being identifiable as Jews, for fear of verbal or physical abuse.

 

Witness says Gazans were told to evacuate north before UN office attack

Our Gaza reporter Rushdi Abualouf has been in contact with someone who was at the UN office in Gaza City that was attacked overnight.

The compound is about 250m (820ft) from Al-Shifa hospital and hundreds of civilians who had fled fighting around the Al-Shati refugee camp had been taking refuge there.

Rushdi’s contact told him an explosion hit the compound – wounding several people – and there were about 40 Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles nearby.

The Israeli army had dropped leaflets telling people the area was in the middle of a military operation area, the contact added. Officers also gave civilians water and told them they should leave.

The contact said the Israeli military told civilians they should go north if they couldn’t evacuate south.

Countries meet in Kenya to thrash out global plastic pollution treaty

Delegates in Nairobi for talks in what experts say could be most important multilateral treaty since Paris accord

Government delegations will gather in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out details of what could be the first global treaty to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

A key focus for the discussions on Monday will be whether targets to restrict plastic production should be decided unilaterally or whether states should choose their own targets; this is, say environmentalists, the “centre of gravity” for the treaty’s ambition.

At the last round of negotiations in Paris in May run by the international negotiating committee (INC) the US, Saudi Arabia, India and China favoured a “Paris-style” agreement where states would have the freedom to determine their own commitments, while others, including Africa and many developing countries, preferred strong global commitments.

Forgotten in KyivSupport Slides for Ukraine in Wake of Middle East War

Weeks after the terrorist attack in Israel pulled the world’s attention away from Kyiv’s plight, the situation in Ukraine is bleak. It appears that Washington is slowly turning its back on the country, and it is unlikely the Europeans can make up for that possible shortfall.

 

By Markus BeckerMarina Kormbaki und Severin Weiland

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to great lengths to show his delight at receiving his distinguished visitor from Brussels, rushing to the train station to welcome European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Arms outstretched, kisses on the left and right cheeks. Von der Leyen, wearing a yellow and blue ribbon on her lapel, gave a short speech. “This train is a legend,” she said, describing the transportation that has brought the European Union leader to Kyiv six times since the start of Russia’s war of aggression – more trips than those taken by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock combined.

Last weekend’s visit was important for Ukraine, which finds itself in an increasingly difficult position. There has been little progress on the front, and only a massive increase in Western military aid could help. But it doesn’t appear that such aid will be forthcoming, particularly with new war in the Middle East taking much of the West’s attention away from Ukraine. Indeed, it is even possible the United States will start reducing its support, and the European Union wouldn’t likely be able to make up for that shortfall.

Activist rabbi helps West Bank farmers facing Israeli settler violence

 Stooping under the weight of his body armour but uncowed by the threat of violence, Rabbi Arik Ascherman guards an olive grove in the occupied West Bank, protecting Palestinian farmers from rising Israeli settler violence.

 

There is no excuse, there is no explanation, no justification for what Hamas did” in its October 7 attacks on southern Israel, said the 64-year-old, a veteran activist with the Rabbis for Human Rights group.

“But the average Israeli today is not prepared or willing to distinguish between Palestinian terrorists and terrorised Palestinians,” he added, alluding to reports of a rise in settler attacks since October 7.

“It’s an all-out war between two peoples,” said Ascherman outside the village of Taybeh, as farmers whacked olives weeping with oil onto pinstripe tarpaulins skirting the tree trunks.

“Nobody at this point is willing to help Palestinians, out of our pain and our anger.”

 

Stadium unrest clouds several weekend Bundesliga games

Police say at least 11 people were injured after a firecracker was thrown from the Hoffenheim fan block. Meanwhile, police were investigating suspects for breaching the peace and bodily harm at a Bochum-Cologne match.

Stadium unrest before or during matches overshadowed three German Bundesliga football games over the weekend.

Several people were injured by a firecracker at a Bundesliga match in Augsburg in Germany’s southeastern state of Bavaria on Saturday.

Augsburg’s match against Hoffenheim ended in a 1-1 draw.

The firework was thrown from the Hoffenheim fan block. Police said that at least 11 people were hurt in the loud explosion.

Augsburg managing director Michael Ströll said that one person suffered blast trauma.

“One perpetrator is visible on video images,” he said.

Thousands of Greenland’s glaciers are rapidly shrinking. Before-and-after photos reveal decades of change

When Laura Larocca visited Denmark in 2019, the climate scientist sifted through thousands of old aerial photographs of Greenland’s icy coastline, which were rediscovered in a castle outside Copenhagen about 15 years ago.
 
Now housed in the Danish National Archives, the historical images inspired her and other researchers to reconstruct the territory’s glacial history and how it has changed amid a rapidly warming climate.
 
After digitizing thousands of archived paper images dating back to the 1930s, Larocca’s team combined them with satellite images of Greenland today to measure how much its frozen landscape has changed.