| | | | | | | Hello. Today we're looking at the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while we're still waiting for a much-delayed UN Security Council resolution to be voted on. My colleague Tim Whewell reports from Bucha, in Ukraine, on the efforts to combat corruption as the town starts its rebuilding efforts. Also, after Andy sends our last edition for the week later today, your newsletter will take a short Christmas break. We'll see you next Wednesday. In the meantime, I wish a Joyeux Noël to those of you who celebrate it and mes meilleurs vœux to all of you. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Gaza faces famine if war doesn't end, UN says | | | | "No-one in Gaza is safe from starvation", UN World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain said. Credit: Reuters |
| | Fighting is continuing in Gaza, with Israeli bombardments across the territory - and Hamas firing rockets towards south and central Israel. In the Strip, the humanitarian situation keeps deteriorating. A quarter of Gazan households are currently facing extreme hunger, according to the UN World Food Programme, which says only 10% of the food needed for Palestinians is entering the territory. Its boss, Cindy McCain, said Gaza was facing a very serious threat of famine if the war continued, and called for "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire". But despite ongoing talks in Cairo, this looks unlikely in the short term. Hamas has ruled out any more hostage releases until Israel agrees to end the war, as opposed to a temporary truce. The Israeli government has repeatedly rejected a permanent ceasefire. In New York, the UN Security Council's latest draft resolution was toned down ahead of its vote – delayed again to today. It no longer calls for a "sustainable cessation of hostilities", but for creating the conditions for one. This new version, crucially, is supported by the US. | | | | |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | Prague latest: The gunman who killed 14 people at Prague's Charles University shot himself when confronted by officers, Czech police said in a press conference on Friday morning. Here's more from our live coverage. | | • | Flatlining: The UK is at risk of recession after revised figures showed the economy shrank between July and September - and economists expect economic growth to "remain subdued throughout 2024", an expert said. | | • | Anger in Japan: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is under pressure over a major corruption scandal engulfing his LDP party, which has dominated the country's politics for decades. | | • | Vin Diesel: A former personal assistant for the Fast & Furious star has accused him of sexual assault during the 2010 filming of Fast Five. The actor "denies this claim in its entirety", his lawyer said. | | • | British teen escapee: Alex Batty has revealed he lied about the details of his journey out of a nomadic community in France to protect his mother and grandfather from police. |
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| | AT THE SCENE | Bucha, Ukraine | | The fight against corruption as Ukraine rebuilds itself | | Western donors have pledged billions of dollars to help rebuild Ukraine, a country with a reputation for high levels of corruption. The effort is expected to be the biggest of its kind since World War Two. Kyiv hopes a flagship project in Bucha, a town shattered at the start of the war, will show new standards for transparency have been set. | | | | The rebuilding of the Bucha apartments, one of the first housing projects of Ukraine's new State Restoration Agency, is intended to show that the country can, in the agency's words, "build back better". "No country knows how to do reconstruction on the level needed here in Ukraine," says Oleksiy Dorogan, chair of a coalition of civil society groups spearheading the drive for openness. "We need to learn not only how to manage that; we also need to learn how to make it transparent." The stakes are high, because if the international community sees something amiss then he fears funding will dry up. |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Are Christmas evergreens that green? | | | | Critics say intensive Christmas tree farming is affecting biodiversity in the region. Credit: BBC |
| | The Burgundy region is France's biggest producer of Christmas trees. Every year, more than a million firs are cut to stand proud in living rooms across the country. But some locals say the tree farms are damaging the environment (and the neighbouring crops), mostly due to the use of herbicides. Producers tell Hugh Schofield of their efforts to make their industry more ecological. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Eggnog wars | | Italy's winter cocktail, the bombardino, is at the heart of a long-standing rivalry. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | I have a couple of hair-raising flight videos for you - but don't worry, they both have happy endings. Biologists in Utah have been airlifting deer by helicopter to carry out health checks. It's quite a sight. And while Storm Pia has caused headaches for travellers in parts of Europe, spare a thought for this pilot struggling to land at an airport in Birmingham, in the UK. Any applause from the passengers was richly deserved. |
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– Jules |
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