Israeli troops wait near Gaza, signalling imminent invasion
All signs indicate an imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, as Israeli troops mass around the border.
On Saturday, eight days after Hamas launched its surprise assault on nearby Israeli communities, killing at least 1,300 people, and after a week of punishing Israeli airstrikes on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, the pastoral farmland around the border has been transformed.
Hulking among the cotton meadows, green orchards and dusty fields are rows of tanks and armoured personnel carriers pointing in the direction of the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Since the Hamas incursion, the bloodiest single day in Israel’s 75-year history, the Israeli military says it has mobilised 360,000 reservists. Some of them have been waiting in these makeshift field camps for a week.
Ukraine finance minister says donor ‘tiredness’ growing
Ukraine is finding it harder to secure financial support as the attention of officials in key donor countries shifts to upcoming elections and geopolitical tensions heighten, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told Reuters on Saturday.
“I see a lot of tiredness, I see a lot of weakness among our partners, they would like to forget about the war but the war is still ongoing, full-scale,” Mr Marchenko said, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Marrakech.
He said Ukraine is making “twice the effort right now to convince our partners to provide us with support compared to the last annual meetings” in April.
Skygazers watch ‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse
Skygazers across the Americas turned their faces upwards on Saturday for a rare celestial event: an annular solar eclipse.
A crowd of people wearing protective eyewear gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one of many across the western United States to watch as the Moon passed between the Sun and Earth at its furthest point from our planet.
Since it is so distant, it does not cover the Sun completely, creating a “ring of fire” effect that brought cheers from the crowd in Albuquerque.
IOC to explore Olympic E-sports Games
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is looking at creating an Olympic E-sports Games, it was announced on Saturday.
“I have asked our new IOC eSports Commission to study the creation of Olympic E-sports Games,” said IOC president Thomas Bach, during the opening ceremony of the 141st IOC session on Saturday in Mumbai, India.
The German noted there are three billion people playing e-sports and gaming around the world. Estimates suggest over 500 million of those are interested specifically in e-sports, which include virtual sports and sport simulations.
Michael Caine announces retirement from acting
Veteran British actor Michael Caine, a Hollywood icon with a decades-spanning career littered with awards and acclaim, revealed on Saturday that he has retired from acting at the age of 90.
The Oscar-winner bows out following another widely-praised performance in his final film, The Great Escaper, which was released on Oct 6.
In it, he plays real-life World War II British veteran Bernie Jordan, who escaped from an elderly residential care home to attend 2014 D-Day celebrations in France.
