WORLD BRIEFING: October 6, 2023
Russia has launched a fresh attack on Kharkiv, killing one child, regional officials reported early on October 6, as the northeastern Ukrainian region was mourning the dozens of people killed by what appears to have been a Russian missile in the village of Hroza the previous day in one of the war's deadliest attacks on civilians. One 10-year-old boy was killed and nine other people were wounded in the city of Kharkiv overnight, Mayor Ihor Terekhov and regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on October 6. "The child was found under the rubble of a residential building. Unfortunately dead. Condolences to the parents and relatives," Terekhov wrote on Telegram. Synyehubov said on Telegram that according to preliminary findings, two Iskander missiles hit the Kyiv and Osnovyan districts of Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people - RFE/RL
The latest attack came as the Kharkiv region has declared a three-day mourning period after the Russian missile strike the previous day that ripped through a cafe in Hroza, a village some 85 kilometers southeast of Kharkiv, killing at least 51 people, including a child, in what was this year's deadliest attack by Moscow forces on Ukrainian civilians. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on October 6 said it had sent a field team to probe the attack on Hroza. "The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, who saw for himself the horrific impact of such strikes, is profoundly shocked and condemns these killings," OHCHR spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva - RFE/RL
Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of her tireless campaigning for women's rights and democracy and against the death penalty. Mohammadi, 51, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. "This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi," said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo - VOA
US President Joe Biden's administration will build a section of border wall in southern Texas, a signature anti-immigration policy of his predecessor Donald Trump.
Mauritius' highest court has decriminalised gay sex. The law banning homosexuality in the island country did not "reflect any indigenous Mauritian values but was inherited as part of our colonial history from Britain", judges said - BBC
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that senior bureaucrats are reviewing the Deschênes Commission report — an independent inquiry that looked into alleged Nazi war criminals who had immigrated to Canada after the Second World War. After they review, it's possible that more of the 1986 report, particularly a section including the names of alleged Nazis living in Canada, will be made public - CBC
The world's September temperatures were the warmest on record, breaking the previous high by a huge margin, according to the EU climate service. Last month was 0.93C warmer than the average September temperature between 1991-2020, and 0.5C hotter than the previous record set in 2020. Ongoing emissions of warming gases in addition to the El Niño weather event are driving the heat, experts believe. Some scientists said they were shocked by the scale of the increase. They say 2023 is now "on track" to be the warmest on record - BBC
An estimated 13.4 million babies were born early (before 37 full weeks of pregnancy) in 2020 – which is around 1 in 10 of all live births - according to a detailed studypublished in the Lancet today by authors from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.