LONDON, December 30 (IPS) - Satellite images show corpses piled high in El Fasher, North Darfur, awaiting mass burial or cremation as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia tries to cover up the scale of its crimes. Up to 150,000 El Fasher residents remain missing from the city, seized by the RSF in November. The lowest estimate is that 60,000 are dead. The Arab militia has ethnically cleansed the city of its non-Arab residents. The slaughter is the latest horrific episode in the war between the RSF and the Sudan Armed Forces, sparked by a power battle between military leaders in April 2023.

Follow our live coverage as the General Assembly and its Fifth Committee meet today to finalize negotiations and vote on the United Nations’ regular budget for 2026. The Fifth Committee is responsible for administrative and budgetary matters, including the Organization’s finances and staffing. UN News app users can click here and go here for all our in-depth meeting coverage.

USERRA DAS ALMAS, Brazil, December 29 (IPS) - “The work of collecting seeds saved me from depression,” caused by her daughter’s suicide at the age of 29, said Maria do Desterro Soares, 64, who lives in the poor rural community of Jatobá in northeastern Brazil.

CIVICUS discusses environmental accountability in Zambia with Christian-Geraud Neema, Africa editor at the China Global South Project, an independent journalism initiative that covers and follows China’s activities in global south countries.

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.

The UN Security Council meets today to hear a briefing on threats to international peace and security following Israel’s recent recognition of the northern region of Somalia as an independent and sovereign state. Follow live below and UN News app users can click here and go here for all our in-depth meeting coverage.

The United Nations and the United States on Monday formalized an agreement under which the US committed $2 billion in humanitarian assistance for global relief programmes, a move the UN’s top relief official hailed as a landmark commitment to saving lives amid escalating humanitarian needs worldwide.

As the world enters 2026 amid mounting crises, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a stark but hopeful New Year appeal, urging global leaders to shift resources away from destruction and towards development, peace and people.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, December 27 (IPS) - Hours before world leaders gathered in Johannesburg for the 2025 G20 summit in November, hundreds of South African women wearing black lay down in a city park for 15 minutes — one for each woman who loses her life every day to gender-based violence in the country. The striking visual protest was organised by a civil society organisation, Women for Change, which also gathered over a million signatures demanding the government declare gender-based violence (GBV) a national disaster. Hours later, the government acquiesced.

CIVICUS discusses Generation Z-led protests in Bulgaria with Zahari Iankov, senior legal expert at the Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law, a civil society organisation that advocates for participation and human rights.