While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 30, 2024
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Militants, rebels and their allies pressed a lightning offensive in Syria on Nov 29, against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Militants, allies enter Syria’s second city in lightning assault
Militants, rebels and their Turkish-backed allies reached Syria’s second city of Aleppo on Nov 29, as they pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
The fighting is some of the deadliest in years, with 277 people killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the dead are combatants although the toll also includes 28 civilians, most killed by Russian air strikes.
The offensive began on Nov 27, the same day that a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
By Nov 29, the fighters and their allies had wrested control of more than 50 towns and villages in the north, according to the Britain-based Observatory, in the government’s biggest loss of territory in years.
US sets tariffs for solar panels from South-east Asian nations
US trade officials announced on Nov 29 a new round of tariffs on solar panel imports from four South-east Asian nations after American manufacturers complained that companies there are flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.
It is the second of two preliminary decisions that President Joe Biden’s Commerce Department is making this year in a trade case brought by Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in US solar manufacturing.
The group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand of causing global prices to collapse by dumping products into the market.
Two women and a child killed in Gaza bread stampede
A child and two women were trampled to death in a stampede at a bakery in the central Gazan city of Deir el-Balah on Nov 29, the hospital that received the bodies said.
Two women and “a young girl, died in front of a bakery in Deir al-Balah as a result of a stampede while trying to buy bread”, Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa hospital said in a statement.
“The crowding and pushing were intense in front of the bakery. Suddenly, there was loud screaming, and they fell to the ground, suffocated by the stampede, including a young girl”, one eyewitness told AFP.
Police in Georgia stage new crackdown on pro-EU protesters
Georgian police on Nov 29 fired water cannon and tear gas on demonstrators, as thousands took to the streets for a second day to protest the government putting off EU membership talks.
The Black Sea nation has been rocked by turmoil since the ruling Georgian Dream party declared victory in October parliamentary elections that the pro-EU opposition decried as falsified.
The government ignited another furious opposition reaction on Nov 28, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Georgia will not seek to open EU accession talks with Brussels until 2028.
British lawmakers give initial support to assisted dying Bill
Britain’s Parliament voted in favour of a new Bill to legalise assisted dying on Nov 29, opening the way for months of further debate on an issue that has divided the country and raised questions about the standard of palliative care.
After a passionate debate in the House of Commons, the Lower House of Parliament, 330 lawmakers voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill with 275 against.
Outside, dozens of opponents gathered, holding signs that read “Kill the Bill, not the ill” and “Care not killing”, urging MPs to vote against the proposed legislation.
