Iran, Israel-Palestine, DRC.

Today's three stories you should know.

Dec 10, 2023

Iran

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi denounced Iran’s government as “tyrannical and anti-women” in a speech smuggled out of prison as her children attended the award ceremony on her behalf today. Fifty-one-year-old Mohammadi, who has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since 2021, was awarded the prize in October for her decades of campaigning "against oppression of women in Iran" and for her human rights work. Mohammadi has been arrested and jailed several times and has not seen her twin children, who live in exile in France, for almost nine years.

Israel-Palestine

Half of Gaza's population is starving, a senior UN official said today, as Israel intensified attacks on the city of Khan Younis and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Hamas to surrender. Carl Skau, deputy director of the World Food Programme, said that only a tiny amount of aid has made it into the Palestinian enclave and that nine out of 10 people cannot eat everyday. Skau said nothing had prepared him for the “fear, the chaos, and the despair” he saw in Gaza this week.

DRC

A powerful rebel group has seized a key town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), military officials and residents of the town of Mushaki told the AP news agency. The M23 armed group was dormant for many years but came roaring out of its hidden bases deep in the bush in 2021 claiming the government had reneged on a deal to integrate its fighters into the national army. The renewed fighting comes as both UN and regional peacekeepers are pulling out of the country. DRC, a massive nation of 100 million people, will hold presidential elections later this month.