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Added on the 20/01/2023 12:30:41 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
The rising waters of the Bei River have nearly engulfed lampposts in flood-hit Qingyuan city in southern China, with the government issuing highest its highest-level rainstorm warning for the affected area. Torrential rains have lashed Guangdong province in recent days, swelling rivers and causing the evacuation of more than 100,000 people. IMAGES
UN climate chief Simon Stiell warns that global warming will "decimate G20 economies" without unity. "Sidelining climate isn’t a solution to a crisis that will decimate every G20 economy and has already started to hurt," he says during his address at the UK think tank Chatham House, London, UK. SOUNDBITE
With the war in Gaza entering its fifth month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that if Israel pressed into the southern city of Rafah, as it reportedly plans to do, it "would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences." "It is time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages", he adds at the top of a speech to the General Assembly presenting his 2024 priorities. SOUNDBITE
Wildfires rip through the Cerro Capitan hill near Bariloche, an iconic tourist town in Argentina's southern Patagonia region. The area affected by the fire is part of the Circuito Chico, a popular hiking trail among visitors. Temperatures in Patagonia, a normally cold and windy region, have topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the southern hemisphere summer, with two provinces declaring states of emergency due to fire risk until April. IMAGES
EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra laments that it has taken "30 years" of UN climate talks for humanity to "arrive at the beginning of the end of fossil fuels," calling a first-ever call for the world to transition away from the top culprit of climate change behind a planetary crisis "long overdue." Following all-night negotiations, the draft deal proposed by the Emirati presidency of the COP28 summit in Dubai would, if adopted, mark the first time that all fossil fuels are addressed in the 28-year history of international climate conferences. SOUNDBITE