News headlines in 2025, page 4

Operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) north of the UN-monitored Blue Line in southern Lebanon have continued, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, UNIFIL.

The UN’s top expert on human rights in Haiti on Friday condemned “intentional” attacks on hospitals, clinics and healthcare workers by armed gangs there, warning that medical facilities were already “near collapse”.

The UN Security Council is meeting in emergency session at 10am in New York on the collapse of health services in Gaza. The meeting was called by Algeria, the leading voice for the Arab world on the Council which has just taken the gavel as president for the month of January. A senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO) briefed ambassadors alongside High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. App users can follow here.

In northeast Syria, UN teams pressed ahead with a lifesaving cholera vaccine campaign in Al Hol detention camp complex on Friday, despite rumours of attacks by ISIL extremists and uncertainty across the war-torn country, following the overthrow of the Assad regime.

Jan 02 (IPS) - CIVICUS discusses the challenges Palestinian civil society faces in resisting digital suppression and advocating for justice with Palestinian lawyer and researcher Dima Samaro.

AYETORO, Nigeria, Jan 02 (IPS) - In 2021, Ojajuni Olufunsho, a 53-year-old resident of Ayetoro, a town along the Atlantic coast, southwestern Nigeria, saw her home swept away by the encroaching sea. What was once a spacious 10-room house, a sanctuary for Olufunsho and her five children, was swallowed by the relentless force of rising sea waters.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Jan 02 (IPS) - Former American President Jimmy Carter was a man of peace and principles. He presided over a tumultuous period in American history from 1977 to 1981, working hard to restore trust in government after the Watergate scandal and the divisive era of the Vietnam War. He brokered a landmark peace deal between Israel and Egypt and negotiated a historic treaty to hand over the Panama Canal to Panama.

More than 115,000 people have reportedly returned to Syria from countries such as Türkiye, Jordan and Lebanon since 8 December – the fall of the Assad regime - the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

Civilians are not safe anywhere in the Gaza Strip, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, warned on Thursday.

Governments must do more to address the root causes of mass migration, UN Children’s Fund UNICEF’s Special Coordinator for the refugee and migrant response in Europe said on Thursday.