December 18, 2023

This is TRT World’s Daily News Brief for Monday, December 18th. *) Israel kills 90 in refugee camp as its attacks continue in Gaza The Israeli army has launched deadly attacks across Gaza, hitting a refugee camp in the north, a hospital in the south and killing a teenage girl who had lost her leg in an earlier strike, according to Palestinian officials, media and eyewitnesses. Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 90 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry spokesman told Reuters. Another missile attack on a house belonging to the Shehab family killed 24 people, Hamas Aqsa radio said. “We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire,” the spokesman said by telephone. *) Voters in Chile reject draft constitution, election officials say Chilean voters have rejected a proposed new constitution drafted by a conservative-led committee, election officials said, meaning the charter imposed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet will remain in force. With 99 percent of referendum ballots counted, the “against” option prevailed with 55.75 percent of the vote, compared to 44.25 percent in favour, according to electoral service Servel just hours after voting ended around 6:00 pm on Sunday (2100 GMT). The latest version of a new proposed constitution was overseen by the far-right opposition Republican Party after voters roundly rejected a progressive draft in September 2022 that attempted to enshrine environmental protections and the right to elective abortion. *) Iraqis vote in first provincial elections for a decade Iraqis vote to choose their provincial councils, the first such election in a decade. Ballots will be held in 15 of Iraq’s provinces but not in the other three which are Kurdish and operate under a separate autonomous system. The election is seen as a key test for the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani. He rose to power just over a year ago on the back of a parliamentary coalition and has focused on developing public services and infrastructure ravaged by decades of conflict. *) Serbia President Vucic says his party won parliamentary polls Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has said his party had won a commanding victory in parliamentary elections, extending the populist outfit’s rule in the Balkan country amid accusations of foul play by the opposition. Official results were set to be announced late on Monday but the president appeared certain of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)’s performance, just hours after the polls closed on Sunday. Even though Vucic was not personally on the ballot in Sunday’s parliamentary and local elections, the contest was largely seen as a referendum on his government. And finally… *) 14th TRT International Documentary Awards held in Istanbul The 14th TRT International Documentary Awards, organised by Türkiye’s national broadcaster TRT, took place in Istanbul between December 14-17 with screenings of national and international documentaries and the participation of expert guests in the field. Throughout the four-day event, documentaries competing in various categories and special selection films were shown to audiences, contributing to enriching the documentary climate in Türkiye. “The Lens of Democracy” received the Best Film Award in the International Category, while “Flaneur” was chosen as the Best Film in the National Professional Category. Speaking at the ceremony, TRT General Manager Mehmet Zahid Sobaci said the event is the largest documentary film festival in Türkiye. He pointed out that it is impossible to think independently about the history and adventure of documentaries and documentary making in Türkiye without TRT “because TRT, since its establishment, has become the school of documentary making.” And that’s your daily news brief from TRT World. For more, head to trtworld.com