While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Dec 6
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre), accompanied by US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (right) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (left), during a visit to the US Capitol in September 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
Zelensky cancels videolink appeal to US Senate
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly cancelled a scheduled videolink appeal to US senators on Dec 5, as Washington is set for a showdown on funding for the war with Russia.
Mr Zelensky was to appear during a classified briefing, a day before the Senate takes the first procedural vote on an emergency aid package that includes more than US$60 billion (S$80 billion) for Kyiv.
The cash has been held up for weeks by a row in Congress, as the White House has warned that existing funds will run out by the end of the year and that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin could win the war if lawmakers fail to act.
“Zelensky by the way could not make it – something happened at the last minute – to our briefing,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Israel army says 82 soldiers killed in Gaza offensive
REUTERS
The Israeli army said on Dec 5 that 82 soldiers had been killed since the start of its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
After weeks of heavy bombing, Israel launched a ground offensive in the territory on Oct 27 aimed at destroying Hamas in retaliation for an attack that Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
The army on Dec 5 afternoon gave a toll of 80 soldiers killed, following the deaths on Dec 4 of five troops.
UK signs controversial new migration treaty with Rwanda
Britain and Rwanda signed a new treaty on Dec 5 in a bid to revive a controversial proposal by London to transfer migrants to the East African country that was blocked by the UK courts.
The agreement, which UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says is crucial to achieve his pledge of slashing irregular migration before a general election expected next year, was signed in Kigali.
It was penned by Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta and British interior minister James Cleverly, who travelled to the Rwandan capital to salvage London’s stalled bid to send migrants to Rwanda after the UK Supreme Court deemed the arrangement unlawful.
Pregnant Texas woman sues for abortion
A 31-year-old woman sued the state of Texas on Dec 5 in order to get an abortion for a pregnancy that she and her doctors say threatens her life and future fertility.
Mrs Kate Cox, a mother-of-two from Dallas-Fort Worth, learned last week that her foetus has full trisomy 18, a genetic condition that means her pregnancy may not survive until birth and if it does her baby would live at most a few days, according to the lawsuit.
Ultrasounds revealed multiple serious conditions, including a twisted spine and irregular skull and heart development. But because of the way Texas’ abortion law is formulated, her physicians told her their “hands are tied” and she will have to wait until her baby dies inside her, the filing brought on Mrs Cox’s behalf by the Centre for Reproductive Rights said.
Badly burned Ukrainian boy returns to school, dance
Eight-year-old Roman Oleksiv is back at school in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, another step in an unlikely recovery from life-threatening burns and shrapnel to the head that he sustained in a Russian missile attack in July 2022.
Roman was waiting to see a doctor with his mother when a cruise missile struck the central town of Vinnytsia, in one of the deadliest single attacks since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began early in 2022.
She was among 28 people killed, while Roman suffered shrapnel wounds, a broken arm and burns over 45 per cent of his body.
