| | | | | Breaking News | | Large explosions in Gaza – live updates | | | | The Israeli army told Gaza City residents to move south. Credit: AFP |
| | Israel has announced an expansion of its ground forces operations tonight, launching a heavier bombardment of Gaza than witnessed in previous days. There have been large explosions and internet in the territory has gone down. Follow our live page for the latest developments and videos from the scene. | | |
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| | | Hello. As the UN General Assembly votes on a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce to the Israel-Gaza conflict, Gaza is under heavy bombardment after Israel announced an expansion to its ground operations. The daughter of a freed Hamas hostage told Wyre Davies about her hopes for a release of the people still held in Gaza, which include her father. From China, Stephen McDonell explains why the sudden death of former premier Li Keqiang poses a threat to the country’s leadership, and from Ohio we receive images of a portrait of Taylor Swift painted on a pumpkin. I scored a modest 3/7 in this week’s news quiz, somehow guessing the horse’s name. See if you can do better. |
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| | | | | | AT THE SCENE | Southern Israel | | Lobbying for hostages’ safe return | | | | Sharone’s 83-year-old father Oded, Yocheved's husband of 63 years, is still missing. Credit: Reuters | | Sharone Lifschitz’s mother Yocheved was one of four hostages released by Hamas so far. Sharone is now spending her days helping her mother's slow recovery, but also lobbying the Israeli government and its international allies, to do more to free the 229 Israeli and foreign hostages still held in Gaza. | | | | Wyre Davies, Middle East correspondent |
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| "My mum is strong and resilient, but her heart is still with the people still in those cellars," says Sharone, referring to the underground tunnels where many hostages from the 7 October Hamas attack are believed to be kept. She believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to invade Gaza should wait to give more time for negotiations to release the hostages. "This should be the absolute minimum aim, to bring these people back to their communities and their families," she says.
Sharone says her mother's naturally positive demeanour is one reason she made a gesture of peace towards one of her captors, shaking his hand and expressing "shalom", a salutation indicating peace, during the moment she was handed over to staff from the International Committee for the Red Cross. Sharone said the man was a paramedic who had tended to Yocheved during her captivity, and engaged with her in discussions of peace for the region. The handshake has been questioned by some in Israel, but her daughter says "she did what she felt was right at that moment". |
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| Questions Answered | | What Li Keqiang’s death means for China | | | | Mr Li came through the ranks of the Communist Party at the same time as Mr Xi. Credit: Reuters |
| | For a decade, Li Keqiang served as the number two in China’s ruling Communist Party to Chinese leader and President Xi Jinping. His sudden death at age 68, just a few months after he stepped down as premier, is a moment the party is choreographing carefully. | | | | Stephen McDonell, China correspondent |
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| | What’s the significance of Mr Li’s death? | | The death of a leader in China can usher in big changes, as it happened after Mao Zedong, or can lead to political upheaval, like it did when grieving for Hu Yaobang morphed into the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The Party doesn't want mourning for a popular, liberal, former number-two leader to generate wider criticism of the current administration, led by Xi Jinping. | | Why was Mr Li popular? | | The former premier was considered one of the smartest political figures of his generation, a bright pragmatist who didn't seem so concerned with ideology. In a Party dominated by engineers, he was an economist, who become known for "telling it like it is" by honestly and publicly acknowledging China's economic problems as a means of finding solutions to them. | | What happens next? | | The coming official ceremonies remembering him will be handled very carefully, lest they even slightly prompt a sympathetic view of the former premier which might conflict with government's current path. Those watching Chinese social media platforms will be monitoring the outpourings of sadness and shock online. | | | | | | |
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| | The big picture | | Banned breed breakdown | | | | Lola, classified as pit-bull-type, was seized by police in 2019. Credit: BBC |
| | With the UK government planning to outlaw American bully XL dogs, owners of illegal breeds share what it’s like to be at the receiving end of a ban, and one police officer describes the challenges in enforcing it. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | Talking trash | | One Danish island has pledged to achieve zero waste by 2032. | | |
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| | And finally... in Ohio | | What better way to mark Halloween and the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) than to paint a giant pumpkin in Taylor Swift’s honour? Artist Jeanette Paras, who made her name painting celebrity portraits on the autumnal fruits, did just that. She even accessorized her creation, and painted another smaller pumpkin to look like a football. Take a look. |
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| | | | | | | | Essential List Newsletter | | The week’s best stories, handpicked by BBC editors, in your inbox every Friday. | | |
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| | | Send me your thoughts on rubbish collection, pumpkin portraits and any suggestions for topics or areas of the world to cover in this newsletter. Tell your friends and family about it! They can sign up here.
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– Sofia |
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