UN agencies and NGOs jointly call for ceasefire in Gaza

Today's news: Opium production in Afghanistan has dropped by 95% in the last year; An attacker - whose motives are still unknown - killed five people in Australia; Another journalist killed in the Philippines, the fourth since the beginning of Marcos' presidential term; Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Russia have developed a transport corridor that circumvents Kazakhstan's territory and international sanctions

ISRAEL - PALESTINE

18 United Nations agencies and several NGOs have called for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas: “There is a need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. 30 days have passed. Enough is enough”, wrote in a statement the representatives of the UN agencies - including Unicef, UN Women, WFP and WHO - and of various NGOs such as Save the Children. According to the Israeli authorities, more than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on October 7 in southern Israel, while according to the authorities of the enclave governed by Hamas, at least 9,770 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the bombing of Gaza. .

AFGHANISTAN

Opium poppy production in Afghanistan, once the world's top supplier, has collapsed since the Taliban administration banned narcotics cultivation last year, according to a United Nations report. The United Nations Office on Drug Enforcement (UNODC) said opium cultivation fell across the country to just 10,800 hectares in 2023 from 233,000 the previous year, reducing supply by 95%.

AUSTRALIA

Five people, including two children, were killed and a dozen injured in Daylesford after a car plowed into a crowd of pub patrons. The exact circumstances of the crash have yet to be determined, police said. The driver, a 66-year-old man, was taken to hospital with minor injuries. When tested there was no trace of alcohol in his system. The interrogation is scheduled for today.

SINGAPORE

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday that he will hand over leadership of the People's Action Party to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as soon as the party's 70th anniversary is celebrated in November 2024, a year before the election. The party is expected to further broaden its support for a nation it has ruled since independence in 1965, meaning Wong is likely to become Singapore's next - and fourth - prime minister. Lee is the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, who is credited with founding modern Singapore. He has been party general secretary and prime minister since 2004 and last year chose Wong, who is also finance minister, to succeed him.

JAPAN

The Japan branch of the Unification Church will meet the press Tuesday in Tokyo to discuss its expected response to the government's request last month for a court order to dissolve the religious organization over its aggressive donation-soliciting tactics. Faced with the possibility of dissolution and the loss of tax exemption as a religious body, Tomihiro Tanaka, head of the branch, is expected to explain the body's plan to pay fines of up to 10 billion yen ( million) to the government. .

TAJIKISTAN

The founder of the Center for Strategic Analysis on Afghanistan and Central Asia at the University of Oxford, Ahmad Boriz, declared that “the concentration of troops in the Afghan part of the Badakšan province is a serious danger for Tajikistan and for the whole of 'Central Asia', also due to the attraction to Islamic fundamentalism that it arouses in the youth of these countries.

PHILIPPINES

Journalist Juan Jumalon was killed by unidentified assailants on Sunday morning while broadcasting live for the radio station where he worked from his home in a southern Philippine city. This was announced by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). “Attacks on journalists will not be tolerated in our democracy, and those who threaten press freedom will face the full consequences of their actions,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said. Jumalon's killing brings the number of journalists to four killed since Marcos took office in June 2022, and 199 since democracy was restored to the Philippines in 1986.

RUSSIA

Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Russia agreed to develop a transport corridor bypassing the territory of Kazakhstan, in a memorandum signed in Tashkent by the heads of the relevant ministries, which reaches the port of Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan to send cargoes towards Baku to Azerbaijan, or to the Russian cities of Makhachkala and Astrakhan, avoiding blockades of the Kazakh borders for Kyrgyz and Russian cargoes to circumvent sanctions

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