Nigeria, Venezuela-Guyana, Israel-Palestine.

Today's three stories you should know.

Dec 05, 2023

Nigeria

A Nigerian military drone attack aimed at killing members of a rebel group instead killed at least 85 civilians, authorities said today. The drone mistakenly targeted a large group of people who had gathered for a religious ceremony in Kaduna state. The National Emergency Management Agency said that the search for bodies was ongoing and rights group Amnesty International said it believed the death toll could be as high as 120, citing its staff and volunteers in the region. The attack is just the latest in a series of such incidents. Between February 2014 and September 2022 there have been 14 documented instances of civilians being killed in similar military actions.

Venezuela-Guyana

This is a big one to watch. Voters in Venezuela have voted overwhelmingly to support a territorial claim on an oil-rich region of neighboring Guyana. The “yes” vote was 95 percent and more than half of the eligible electorate took part, making it the highest turnout in Venezuelan history. Essequibo has long been administered by Guyana but Venezuela has for decades laid claim to it. The region makes up more than two-thirds of the territory of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana’s government fears the vote may be a pretext for an annexation attempt.

Israel-Palestine

All eyes are now on Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis with the Israeli army announcing at the time of writing that it has encircled it after days of heavy bombardment. The story is moving fast so, rather than give you an update that will be out of date by the time you open the email, I’d like to remind you of key sources that you can rely on as this phase of the conflict develops over the next few days.

Al Jazeera’s live blog is here.

Al Jazeera English streams live on YouTube here.

In addition to Al Jazeera, in whose backyard the conflict is taking place, the major news agencies are a good place to go for rigorously edited and fact-checked work.

Reuters is here.

The Associated Press is here.

And Facebook is the best place for following the work of AFP. That’s here.