STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan 13 2026 (IPS)* – At the moment, ICE’s advancement in the U.S. is apparently dividing the nation’s population into desired and undesirable elements.
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Refugees by Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was born after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and intended to be a response to terrorism.
However, with Donald Trump’s return to the White House, federal immigration agents have become the president’s praetorian guard, implementing his immigration politics.
ICE has currently 22,000 employees, a number destined to grow thanks to new recruits. Its budget is USD 30 billion a year. During 2025, the agency’s spending on fire arms has grown 600 percent. Continue reading →
(UN News)* —Three months into the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the UN and partners have delivered tonnes of assistance items and carried out critical repairs, but this is only a temporary “Band-Aid” solution, a veteran aid worker warned.
UN News | Many Palestinian families are living in poorly equipped shelters that are highly vulnerable to flooding, leaving people inevitably exposed to harsh, stormy weather.
“The humanitarian situation and crisis in Gaza is far from being over,” Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office OCHAsaid on Friday [] in an update to journalists in Jerusalem.
“For the Palestinians in Gaza, their lives continue to be defined by displacement, trauma, uncertainty, and deprivation.”
This has been further compounded by “severe recurrent storms that not only destroy people’s meagre belongings, but they’re also deadly – whether through crumbling buildings or by taking the lives of children who are highly susceptible to the cold”.
BRATISLAVA, Jan 14 2026 (IPS)* –Israel must lift all restrictions on medicine, food and aid coming into Gaza, rights groups have demanded, as two reports released today (Jan 14) document how maternal and reproductive healthcare have been all but destroyed in the country.
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Cardiologist Dr. Marwan Sultan, then Director of the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza, in February 2025 showing damage to hospital equipment following an Israeli attack on the facility a few months prior. In July 2025, Dr. Sultan was killed in an Israeli strike on the apartment where he was sheltering with his family. Credit: PHR/GHRC Continue reading →
(UN News)* —The temporary closure of a UN-run health centre in East Jerusalem is the latest phase in “a pattern of deliberate disregard” for international law, the head of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Wednesday [].
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UNRWA | UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem
Israeli forces stormed the UNRWA-operated health centre on Monday and ordered it to close for 30 days. They also demanded the removal of UN signage.
Furthermore, water and electricity supply to multiple UNRWA facilities are scheduled to be cut off in the coming weeks, affecting schools, health centres and other critical buildings.
(Beirut) –Saudiauthorities executed at least 356 people in 2025, setting a new record in the country for the highest number of executions in one year since monitoring began, Human Rights Watch on 13 January 2026 said.
(UN News)* — As anti-government demonstrations continue across Iran, the UN human rights chief said on Tuesday [] that he was horrified at the mounting violence directed by security forces against protestors, with reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested.
Volker Türk urged the authorities to immediately halt all forms of violence and repression against peaceful protestors and to restore full access to the internet and telecommunications.
“The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” he said.
Since 28 December, citizens have taken to the streets in all provinces of Iran, initially to voice their frustration over record inflation, soaring food prices and the sudden collapse of the national currency.
(UN News)* — Conflict-related sexual violence in Sri Lanka remains largely unaddressed more than 15 years after the end of the civil war, with survivors still denied justice, recognition and reparations, according to a new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Tuesday [].
It concludes that a legacy of impunity for wartime abuses continues to shape the lives of survivors, many of whom suffer long-term physical injuries, psychological trauma and social exclusion.
(UN News)* —Public hearings opened on Monday [] at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a landmark case brought by the Gambia against Myanmar, alleging violations of the Genocide Convention over the military’s treatment of the Rohingya minority.
(UN News)* — Airstrikes, drone attacks and hypothermia continue in Gaza despite the ceasefire, with more than 100 youngsters killed since early October, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday [].
“That’s roughly a girl or a boy killed here every day during a ceasefire,”UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.
“These children are killed from airstrikes, drone strikes, including suicide drones,” he said, speaking from Gaza City. “They’re killed from tank shelling, they’re killed from live ammunition, they’re killed from [remote-controlled] quadcopters.”
(UN News)* — The humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip remains extremely serious, with harsh winter weather threatening to reverse recent gains in aid delivery, the United Nations said on Monday [].
Briefing correspondents in New York, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric reported that ongoing rainstorms are damaging and destroying fragile shelters, leaving large numbers of displaced people exposed to the cold.
“To help address immense shelter needs, during the past week our partners delivered supplies to 28,000 families, including 1,600 tents, 16,000 tarpaulins and 27,000 blankets,” Mr. Dujarric said.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 13 2026 (IPS)* –Judging by the mass US withdrawal from 66 UN entities, including UN conventions and international treaties, is it remotely possible that the unpredictable Trump administration may one day decide to pull out of the UN, and force the Secretariat out of New York– despite the 1947 UN-US headquarters agreement?
As the world rings in a new year, the need to address ongoing and long-lasting humanitarian crises remains urgent. In 2026, several regions will face challenges that will demand global attention.
Occupied Palestinian territory
Displaced Palestinians make their way back to their homes in northern Gaza. Photo: Amjad al Fayoumi/NRC
A fragile ceasefire came into effect in Gaza in October, yet civilians remain in urgent need of food, medicine, shelter, clean water and other essential items and services.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed and 170,000 injured over two years of hostilities, and the death toll continues to rise. 1.9 million people – around 90 per cent of the population – have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times.
(UN News)* — The United States’ intention to withdraw from a host of UN bodies announced this week targets programmes and initiatives focusing on a wide range of crucial areas, including the climate crisis, trade, gender and development.
When UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric briefed correspondents in New York on Thursday [8 ] following the release of the White House Memorandum, he insisted that the Organization will continue to carry out its mandates from Member States “with determination.”
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Wednesday’s memorandum states that the US administration is “ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law.”
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Several of the bodies listed in the memo are funded principally or partially by the regular UN budget, implying that voluntary funding will be impacted, although central funding will continue.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 5 2026 (IPS)* –The statistics are staggering: while military spending keeps skyrocketing, Official Development Assistance (ODA)– from the rich to some of the world’s poorer nations– has been declining drastically.
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According to a Fact Sheet released by the UN last week, the $2.7 trillion allocated in just one year (2024) to global military spending amounted to $334 for every person on the planet; the size of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all African countries; more than half the GDP of all Latin American countries; 750 times the 2024 UN regular budget; and almost 13 times the amount of ODA provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2024.Continue reading →
(UN News)* —UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed regret over the decision by the United States to withdraw from a number of UN entities, while underscoring that the system will continue to deliver on all its mandates.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | A view of the UN Headquarters, in New York.
“As we have consistently underscored, assessed contributions to the United Nations regular budget and peacekeeping budget, as approved by the General Assembly, are a legal obligation under the UN Charterfor all Member States, including the United States,” a statementissued by the UN Spokesperson said on Thursday [].
Wednesday night’s presidential memorandum directs US executive departments and agencies to take immediate steps to withdraw from dozens of international organizations, conventions and treaties deemed by Washington to be contrary to US interests.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 8 2026 (IPS)* –President Donald Trump’s executive order to stop U.S. support for 66 international organizations, including 31 United Nations (UN) groups, has faced strong opposition from these organizations, the global community, humanitarian experts, and climate advocates, who are concerned about the negative effects on global cooperation, sustainable development, and international peace and security.
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Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s eightieth session in 2025. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider.
Thisexecutive orderfollows earlier U.S. withdrawals from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The U.S. has recently reduced its funding for foreign aid organizations.Continue reading →
YANGON, Myanmar and BANGKOK , Jan 6 2026 (IPS)* –With thousands of civilians killed in years of civil war and over 22,000 political prisoners still behind bars, no one was surprised that early results from Myanmar’s first but tightly controlled elections since the 2021 coup show the military’s proxy party speeding to victory.
A man walks past a campaign poster for the military’s proxy party USDP ahead of strictly controlled elections in Myanmar. Credit: Guy Dinmore/IPS
“How can you hold elections and bomb civilians at the same time?” asked Khin Ohmar, a civil rights activist outside Myanmar who is monitoring what the resistance forces and a shadow government reject as “sham” polls. Continue reading →
(UN News)* — A sweeping UN human rights report released on Wednesday [] concludes that in the occupied West Bank, Israel is violating international law prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid, warning that the discriminatory practices have accelerated dramatically since late 2022 amid growing violence, repression and impunity.
The report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, documents what it describes as a decades-long system of discrimination that has sharply intensified since at least December 2022.
‘Systematic asphyxiation’ of rights
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, saidthe findings reveal “a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank.”
2 Jan 2026 – Israel has declared its intent to expand into the geostrategic Red Sea Region by recognizing Northern Somalia’s secessionist state, but Somalia and much of the rest of the world are pushing back hard. No other nations followed suit and only the US was supportive.
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There Is No “Somaliland”: Hargeisa Controls Only Half Its Former Territory
(UN News)* — Some 65,000 households in the Gaza Strip were affected by the severe winter storms that whipped through the enclave last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday [].
“Tents were blown away or damaged, homes collapsed under storm conditions, and personal belongings were soaked,” according to its latest update.
(UN News)* —Sudan’s deepening war is driving unprecedented levels of hunger, child malnutrition and displacement, UN agencies report, as new data from Darfur and a renewed refugee influx into Chad underscore the rapidly deteriorating situation.
The war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has devastated civilian infrastructure, collapsed basic services and triggered one of the world’s largest displacement crises.
(UN News)* — Afghanistan is expected to remain one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in 2026, UN agencies and humanitarian partners warned on Tuesday [], launching a $1.7 billion appeal to assist nearly 18 million people in urgent need.
Years of conflict, compounded by worsening food insecurity, recurrent natural disasters, climate change impacts and large-scale returns of displaced people, have left an estimated 45 per cent of the population – some 21.9 million people – in need of humanitarian assistance next year.
Of those, 17.5 million people – more than three-quarters of them women and children – have been prioritised for support under the coordinated response. Food security and sanitation remain among the most urgent needs.
Venezuela’s political shock has sharpened global attention on a country already facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crises. For the United Nations, the priority remains unchanged: protecting lives, sustaining basic services and supporting Venezuelans at home and across the region.
— Venezuela has endured years of economic collapse, political instability, hyperinflation and economic sanctions from Washington, compounded by floods, landslides and other climate shocks.
— According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, 7.9 million people— more than a quarter of the population — need urgent humanitarian assistance.
“We always pray for peace. But unfortunately, we have gotten into a rocky start for 2026,” Larry C. Johnson, former Central Intelligence Agency analyst told his Norwegian interviewer and International Relations Professor Glen Diesen in Oslo on 4 January.
Maung Zarni
Of course, Johnson was referring to Washington’s most recent brazen act of attacking Venezuela and kidnapping its sitting President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, former head of the National Assembly in the wee hours of January 3.
To belabour the obvious, US President Donald J. Trump is proving to be yet another aggressor in the White House despite the schizophrenic claims that he has ended eight wars, for which he practically demanded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
For the coveted “peace” prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, however, opted for a more suitable candidate, whom the committee gift-wrapped as “a democrat”. Her qualification? Continue reading →
(UN News)* — Invoking the bedrock principle prohibiting the use of force against the territory and independence of any State, the UN Secretary-General told the Security Council on Monday [] there must be “full respect” for the UN Charter, in the face of the United States military intervention in Venezuela and seizure of President Nicolás Maduro.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | A wide view of the Security Council meeting on the situation in Venezuela.
In a statement delivered by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, António Guterres said the Council was meeting “at a grave time” following the 3 January US military action in Venezuela.
On a rescue ship in the Mediterranean, a survivor tells of their detainment in Libya, which the EU helped to support
Migrant people and refugees await rescue by a civilian boat in the Mediterranean after setting sail from Libya | David Ramos/Getty Images
13 December 2025 (openDemocracy)** —The boat took us all by surprise that morning. It was spotted by a crew member on lookout on our top deck, and soon, what had been a pinpoint on the horizon quickly became a distinct wooden boat, tightly packed with people, all waving and shouting. No one was wearing a lifejacket.
(UN News)* —The UN Secretary-General has condemned amendments adopted by Israel’s Knesset to a law aimed at ceasing the operations of the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA), saying the measures must be immediately repealed.
UNRWA | UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem. (file)
The amendments, adopted on 29 December, to the Law to Cease UNRWA Operations “seek to further impede UNRWA’s ability to operate and carry out its mandated activities,” said astatementissued by the Spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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“The Law and its amendments are inconsistent with the status and international legal framework applicable to UNRWA and must be immediately repealed,” it added.
(UN News)* — As 2026 begins, residents of the Gaza Strip are confronting life in displacement camps and among the ruins of destroyed neighbourhoods – facing deep uncertainty after months of war and devastation.
UN News | A young Palestinian girl wearing a Santa Claus outfit, stands in front of tents belonging to displaced families in northern Gaza City.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain uprooted, many living in makeshift tents pitched on bare ground or squeezed into damaged buildings without reliable access to water, electricity, healthcare or sanitation. Winter rains have compounded the hardship, flooding shelters and turning camp pathways into heavy mud.
Horrified by IDF war crimes in Gaza, more Americans are said to support Palestine than Israel for the first time ever
Israeli troops now routinely ‘secure’ the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, severely restricting Palestinians’ movements, to allow Israeli settlers to tour the city | Mosab Shawer / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
11 December 2025 (openDemocracy)** —Two months into Israel and Hamas’s ‘ceasefire’, the name is already proving a misnomer. Violence continues in Gaza, where more than 360 Palestinians, including as many as 70 children, and three Israeli soldiers have been killed since 10 October.
(UN News)* —Severe weather conditions have led to further casualties and heightened health risks in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) reported on Monday [].
Heavy seasonal downpours are compounding an already dire humanitarian situation, as rainstorms cause war-damaged buildings to collapse, flood tents and soak people’s belongings, OCHAsaid.
To respond swiftly to flood alerts, a coordinated system bringing together UN agencies and non-governmental organizations is distributing tents, tarpaulins, warm clothes, blankets and dignity kits across Gaza.
The UN and its partners are also mobilising heavy equipment to pump overflowing sewage – which poses serious health risks – away from residential areas.
Nearly nine in ten agricultural West Bank families – or about 100 000 agricultural households – have recently experienced at least one acute “shock”.
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Jerusalem/Cairo – More than 72 000 farming and herding families in the West Bank – nearly two-thirds of all agricultural families – urgently require emergency agricultural assistance, according to a new survey published on 24 December 2025 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The survey shows that about 90 percent of West Bank agricultural families have recently lost income, driven by sharp declines in crop and livestock production and sales.
23 Apr 2025 – Somalia’s recognition of SSC-Khaatumo as its sixth Federal Member State (FMS) has radically shifted the Horn of Africa’s geopolitical dynamics, with implications for Israel, Palestine, and Ansar Allah (“the Houthis”).
The geopolitical dynamics of the Horn of Africa region are always volatile, but more so now than ever.
The world’s attention is most drawn to the region by Ansar Allah’s disruption of crucial maritime routes in the Red Sea in support of Palestine and Donald Trump’s despicable proposal to remove and dump the entire population of Gaza in war-torn Sudan, Somalia, and/or Somaliland, the unrecognized Somali secessionist state.
10 December 2025 (UNICEF)* — UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services.
UNICEF/UN0591078/TaxtaOn 3 February 2022 in Somalia, a child feeds on a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) packet while his mother holds him waiting to receive assistance at Community Empowerment and Development Action Health Centre in Dolow.
(UN News)* —Brutal slashes to aid budgets are hampering efforts to assist millions of people in Somalia affected by drought, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on
More than 4.6 million people across the country, roughly a quarter of the population, are impacted, according to local authorities.
“Partners indicate that at least 120,000 people were displaced between September and December, as water prices soar, food becomes increasingly scarce, livestock die and livelihoods collapse,”OCHA said in an update.
Additionally, more than 75,000 students nationwide have been forced to drop out of school.
22 December 2025 — When the seventh edition of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) – a sprawling report on the state of the natural world – came out earlier this month its warnings were stark.
UNEP
Humanity is pushing the Earth to its environmental breaking point, the report’s authors warned, with potentially dire consequences for everything from human health to the global economy.
But GEO-7, produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), says it is not too late for humanity to change course.
Within its pages is a recipe for a healthier planet that focuses on transforming five key systems: economic and financial; materials and waste; energy; food; and the environment.
(UN News)* — With rising effects of climate change across the globe, the world has started recognising that climate change is not just an ecological collapse, but also a human rights crisis.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk echoed this message in Geneva earlier this year and posed a question before the Human Rights Council:
“Are we taking the steps needed to protect people from climate chaos, safeguard their futures and manage natural resources in ways that respect human rights and the environment?”
His answer was very simple: we are not doing nearly enough.
Dec 23 2025 (IPS)** – CIVICUS discusses migrants’ rights in Libya with Sarra Zidi, political scientist and researcher for HuMENA, an international civil society organisation (CSO) that advances democracy, human rights and social justice across the Middle East and North Africa.
Sarra Zidi
Libya has fragmented into rival power centres, with large areas controlled by armed groups.
As state institutions have collapsed, there’s no functioning system to protect the rights and safety of migrants and refugees.
Instead, state-linked bodies such as the Directorate for Combating Illegal Immigration (DCIM) and the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) often work with militias, smugglers and traffickers, with near-total impunity.
In this lawless environment, Sub-Saharan migrants face systematic abuses that the International Criminal Court (ICC) and United Nations bodies warnmay amount to crimes against humanity.
Despite this, the European Union (EU) continues to classify Libya as a ‘safe country of return’ and work with it to externalise its migration control.Continue reading →
GAZA, The Occupied Palestinian Territory, 24 December 2025 —When Rana learned she was pregnant, her joy was quickly overshadowed by another feeling – fear.
For Rana, as for many of the 55,000 pregnant womenacross Gaza seeking healthcare, the question was not if her baby would be born but where, and whether they would survive the delivery.
“I thought I would have to give birth in a tent,” she recalled.
After two years of relentless attacks, Gaza’s health system has been shattered. Only a fraction of health facilities remain functional, and very few can provide emergency obstetric and newborn care.
(UN News)* —The war in Sudan is entering a deadlier phase, the United Nations has warned, as intensified fighting in the Kordofan region, mounting civilian casualties from drone strikes and growing risks of regional spillover push the conflict toward the 1,000-day mark.
Briefing the Security Council on Monday [], senior UN political and humanitarian officials described a sharply deteriorating security and humanitarian situation marked by indiscriminate attacks, expanding territorial gains by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and escalating dangers for civilians, aid workers and peacekeepers.
(UN News)* — An estimated 500,000 people have been forced from their homes since fighting erupted in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at the beginning of December.
That’s according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
“This hunger crisis risks spiraling without urgent action,” said Cynthia Jones, WFP Country Director for the DRC.
She added that even the families who have provided shelter to those forced to flee are already living at emergency levels of food insecurity, “sharing their last food with displaced neighbors—pushing all of them closer to utter desperation.”
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23 2025 (IPS)* – Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made a highly debatable distinction between “friendly” right-wing “authoritarian” regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing “totalitarian” dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).
Tercer Piso. Source Amnesty International
Around the same time, successive U.S. administrations were cozying up to a rash of authoritarian regimes, mostly in the Middle East, widely accused of instituting emergency laws, detaining dissidents, cracking down on the press, torturing political prisoners and rigorously imposing death penalties. Continue reading →
(UN News)* —As Myanmar approaches elections scheduled for 28 December, the UN’s top human rights official has said that civilians are being coerced from all sides – forced by the military to vote and threatened by armed opposition groups to boycott – in a climate of fear, violence and mass repression.
Unsplash/Kyle Petzer | A pagoda at dawn in downtown Yangon, the commercial hub of Myanmar.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warnedthat the military-controlled ballot is unfolding amid intensified violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests, leaving no space for free or meaningful participation.
“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” Mr. Türk said in a news release.
Navdanya International has released the report Seeds of Resistance, which documents the global spread of both old and new GMOs and the dismantling of biosafety regulations across continents.
Photo: Manlio Masucci
On November 22, Navdanya International presented this new report for the first time at the international meeting Semillas en Resistencia Global, held at the National Museum of Popular Cultures in Mexico City, together with peasants, Indigenous communities, researchers and activists from Latin America, Africa and Europe.
(UN News)* — Despite the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, humanitarians continue to receive reports of airstrikes, shelling and gunfire in all five governorates, the United Nations said on Monday [].
UN News | As rain falls over Gaza, children take refuge beneath a disabled fishing boat, one of the few places offering shelter in the overcrowded displacement area.
This has resulted in casualties and disruptions to aid operations over the past 24 hours, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at Headquarters, in New York.
Still, efforts to deliver assistance to the most vulnerable families continue during the cold and wet winter season, although a rescue mission to reach an injured person in Gaza City was denied.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Dec 22 2025 (IPS)** – Myanmar is heading for an election, beginning on 28 December, that’s ostensibly an exercise in democracy – but it has clearly been designed with the aim of conferring more legitimacy on its military junta.
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Credit: Issei Kato/Reuters via Gallo Images
Almost five years after its February 2021 coup, the regime continues to fight pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed organisations, barely controlling a fifth of Myanmar’s territory.
Some 600 glaciers have already disappeared and many more will vanish if temperatures continue to rise.
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PHOTO:Mark/Adobe Stock
Glaciers, an essential source of life around our mountains
Glaciers, vast reserves of ice and snow found across the planet, are far more than frozen landscapes – they are lifelines for ecosystems and communities, holding around 70 percent of the world’s freshwater.
Their accelerated melting represents not only an environmental crisis but also a humanitarian one, threatening agriculture, clean energy, water security and billions of peoples’ lives.
Their retreat, driven by rising global temperatures, is a stark indicator of the climate crisis.
18 December 2025 — Record heat, record low sea ice, shrinking glaciers, continued warming of the ocean and unprecedented extreme weather events are just some of the disruptive changes reported that are transforming this once reliably frozen region into a warmer, wetter, and unpredictable world.
WMO 2021 Calendar Competition – Henrique Pacini
These are the key findings of the Arctic Report Card 2025, authored by 112 scientists from 13 countries. Now in its 20th year, the report documents ongoing trends, record-setting events, and emerging challenges in a region warming far faster than the rest of the planet.
Research underscores the meditation ability to reduce stress, improve focus and emotional balance, alleviating anxiety and depression, and enhance sleep quality. It also contributes to better physical health, including lowering blood pressure and managing pain.
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Meditation is an ancient practice that involves focusing one’s attention on the present moment. Rooted in religious, yogic, and secular traditions across cultures, meditation has been practiced for thousands of years.
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Today, it is embraced worldwide, transcending its spiritual origins to become a universal tool for personal well-being and mental health.
The findings are a stark warning that the Amazon’s crisis is not only about trees. It is about the air millions of people breathe, and the health of our shared planet.
New evidence shows rangelands are degrading faster than rainforests in some regions, despite bringing multiple benefits and sustaining two billion people
Bonn/Panama City– Stretching from the drylands of Latin America and Africa to the steppes of Central Asia, rangelands underpin food security, climate stability and centuries-old pastoral cultures.
These vast landscapes, covering half the planet, store significant carbon, buffer climate extremes, and regulate water in some of the world’s driest regions.
Yet, despite their immense value, rangelands remain one of the planet’s most overlooked ecosystems.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 