News headlines in February 2026, page 22

The partial reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has allowed a small number of people to leave and return to the Strip – including critically ill patients – but the UN has warned that far more is needed for the crossing to function as a genuine humanitarian lifeline.

The UN committee mandated to promote Palestinian rights opened its 2026 session on Tuesday with renewed calls for a two-State solution, amid a shaky ceasefire in Gaza and continued settler expansion in the West Bank.

A fresh wave of Russian strikes overnight across Ukraine injured several people and left thousands “without heat in the heart of winter,” the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country said on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday launched its 2026 global appeal for nearly $1 billion to ensure that millions of people living in humanitarian crises and conflicts can access healthcare.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, February 2 (IPS) - When US special forces seized Nicolás Maduro and his wife from the presidential residence in Caracas on 3 January, killing at least 24 Venezuelan security officers and 32 Cuban intelligence operatives in the process, many in the Venezuelan opposition briefly dared hope. They speculated that intervention might finally bring the democratic transition thwarted when Maduro entrenched himself in power after losing the July 2024 election. But within hours, those hopes were crushed. Trump announced the USA would now ‘run’ Venezuela and Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in to replace Maduro. Venezuela’s sovereignty had been violated twice: first by an authoritarian regime that usurped the popular will, and then by an external power that deliberately violated international law.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, February 2 (IPS) - Hunger shadowed Mercy Lung’aho’s childhood, fueling her campaign to promote nutrition as a foundation for Africa’s development.

NEW YORK, February 2 (IPS) - Several events, meetings, consultations, initiatives, etc. taking place among faith-inspired, ‘faith-based’ and a variety of other similar efforts, over the past year, in the United States especially, concern me.

UN peacekeepers temporarily suspended patrols and other activities along parts of the ‘Blue Line’ in southern Lebanon after the Israeli military said it would release what it described as a non-toxic chemical substance near the frontier, the UN said on Monday.

The re-opening of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday after more than a year is being met with both optimism and fear, a senior official with the UN agency that assists the Palestinian people, UNRWA, has said.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that cuts to international aid and persistent funding gaps are undermining the global health system.