Ukraine says Russian attack sets a new record for the number of drones used

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Ukraine says Russian attack sets a new record for the number of drones used

2024-11-26 19:36 Last Updated At：19:40

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched 188 drones against most regions of Ukraine in a nighttime blitz, the Ukrainian air force said Tuesday, describing it as a record number of drones deployed in a single attack.

Most of the drones were intercepted, according to the air force, but apartment buildings and critical infrastructure such as the national power grid were damaged. No casualties were immediately reported in the 17 targeted regions.

Russia has been hammering civilian areas of Ukraine with increasingly heavy drone, missile and glide bomb attacks since the middle of the year.

At the same time, Russia’s army has largely held the battlefield initiative for the past year and has been pushing hard in the eastern Donetsk region where it is making significant tactical advances, according to Western military analysts.

Ukraine faces a difficult winter, with worries about the reliability of the electricity supply amid Russia’s attacks and how much U.S. support it can count on next year after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

The air raid alert in the Kyiv region overnight lasted more than seven hours. Russia is trying to unnerve civilians and wear down their will to resist in the almost 3-year-old war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday its forces destroyed 39 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions near the border with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff said Tuesday that over the past 24 hours roughly half of the clashes along the about 1,000-kilometer (600 mile) front line occurred near Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine has a critical manpower problem on the front line, and though the Russian army’s gains have been incremental its momentum is adding up as the Ukrainians yield ground.

The Russian advance is threatening important supply routes in Donetsk, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said late Monday.

Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk are not in danger of being overrun, however, the think tank said. It also noted that Russia would need to capture more than 8,000 square kilometers (3,000 square miles) of territory to achieve the Kremlin’s goal of seizing the whole of Donetsk.

In other developments, a court in Russia’s Kursk region has ordered a British national fighting with Ukraine to be held in detention pending an investigation and trial.

The ruling on the Briton, identified by state news agency Tass and other media as James Scott Rhys Anderson, was announced Tuesday by court officials, who said in an online statement that it was handed down the previous day.

The hearing took place behind closed doors in the Leninsky District Court in the city of Kursk. It wasn’t clear from the statement what charges Anderson is facing and whether he is considered a prisoner of war by the Russian authorities.

The Briton reportedly was captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have seized territory following a lightning offensive in August.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Hong Kong's top court rules in favor of equal inheritance and housing benefits for same-sex couples

2024-11-26 19:36 Last Updated At：19:40

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday upheld earlier rulings that favored subsidized housing benefits and equal inheritance rights for same-sex married couples, in a landmark victory for the city's LGBTQ+ community.

The Court of Final Appeal's dismissal of the government's appeals ended some yearslong legal battles over the differential treatment facing same-sex couples married overseas under Hong Kong’s Housing Authority policies and two inheritance laws.

The unanimous decisions are expected to have a far-reaching impact on the lives of same-sex couples, who have traditionally had fewer rights compared to their heterosexual counterparts in the global financial hub.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung said in his judgement that exclusionary housing policies were argued to be beneficial to opposite-sex married couples because they increase the supply of subsidized housing for them and thereby support the institution of traditional families.

But Cheung said authorities failed to provide evidence showing the potential impact on opposite-sex couples if those policies were relaxed.

“The challenged policies cannot be justified,” he wrote.

On the inheritance laws, judges Roberto Ribeiro and Joseph Fok ruled that the disputed provisions are “discriminatory and unconstitutional" in their written judgement.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement it respects the court’s decisions, adding it will study the judgements and seek legal advice on next steps.

Hong Kong does not recognize same-sex marriage, prompting some couples to marry elsewhere.

Currently, the city only recognizes same-sex marriage for certain purposes such as taxation, civil service benefits and dependent visas. Many of the government’s concessions were won through legal challenges, and the city has seen a growing social acceptance toward same-sex marriage.

In September 2023, the top court ruled that the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships. This ruling, along with other successful legal challenges brought by members of the LGBTQ+ community, made Hong Kong the only place in China to grant such recognition for same-sex couples.

In separate judgements handed down in 2020 and 2021, a lower court had ruled that the housing policies involved in Tuesday's cases violated the constitutional right to equality, and that excluding same-sex spouses from inheritance law benefits constituted unlawful discrimination.

The government had challenged these decisions at the Court of Appeal but subsequently lost in October 2023. It then took the cases to the top court.

Nick Infinger, who first launched a judicial review against the Housing Authority in 2018, told reporters that Tuesday's rulings “acknowledged same-sex couples can love each other and deserve to live together."

“This is not only fighting for me and for my partner, but this is fighting for all the same-sex couples in Hong Kong,” he said outside the court building.

But he added he was still “a bit pessimistic” about whether Hong Kong could become like Taiwan and Thailand in legalizing same-sex marriage.

Hong Kong Marriage Equality, a non-governmental organization, said in a statement that the judges' decisions made it clear that discrimination and differential treatment on the grounds of sexual orientation violate human dignity and equality. It called on the government to immediately end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage.

The top court’s rulings also concluded a long legal journey taken by Henry Li and his late partner, Edgar Ng. After they married in Britain in 2017, Ng bought a subsidized flat as his matrimonial home with Li.

The Housing Authority, however, said Li could not be added as an authorized occupant of the flat in the capacity of Ng's family member because same-sex married partners do not fall within its definition of “spouse." Ng was also concerned that if he died intestate, his proprieties would not be passed to Li, the court heard.

Ng died in 2020 after suffering years of depression.

After the rulings, Li posted a message on his Facebook account, saying that although he has lived in pain in the absence of Ng, he has not given up his husband's aspiration to pursue equality.

“Without you by my side, the arguments of the government and the Housing Authority in the cases seemed to become more cruel, causing me even more distress,” he wrote to Ng in the message. “I hope you can still hear everyone’s recognition of you.”