News headlines in December 2025, page 7

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 Monday.

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.

Hostilities in Ukraine this weekend resulted in more civilian casualties and widespread damage to critical infrastructure, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Monday.

Senior UN political and humanitarian officials are set brief the Security Council this afternoon as members meet to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan, where intensified fighting – including in the Kordofan region – has driven widespread civilian harm and displacement. The region has seen a sharp escalation, including a deadly drone attack on a UN peacekeeping base that killed six Bangladeshi peacekeepers. The meeting was requested by Sudan and Transitional Prime Minister, Kamil Eltayeb Idris, is expected to attend. Follow live below and UN News app users can click here.

Past geopolitical tensions related to the synthetic drug “captagon” are now being mitigated with the Syrian authorities’ commitment to dismantle illicit manufacturing, says the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

CIVICUS discusses climate displacement and Tuvalu’s future with Kiali Molu, a former civil servant at Tuvalu’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and currently a PhD candidate at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and the University of Bergen in Norway. His research focuses on state sovereignty and climate change in the Pacific.

NAIROBI, December 19 (IPS) - Farmers can now know and benefit from their contribution to climate change thanks to a formula that can be used to calculate the amount of carbon stored in fruit trees.

PARIS, December 19 (IPS) - Today, society is rightly concerned about the rising prevalence of autism among children worldwide; affecting up to 1% of children, it has a profound impact on families. Neuroinflammation and environmental origins are increasingly implicated. But what causes them?

UNITED NATIONS, December 19 (IPS) - A long-standing proposal going back to 1996—to establish a single non-renewable seven-year term for the Secretary-General of the United Nations– has been resurrected by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The path to long-awaited elections in Libya is paved with complications but they can be overcome, the UN Special Representative for the country said on Friday in a briefing to the Security Council.