UN News Today 09 December 2024

WFP food warehouse stormed by desperate civilians, as starvation loomsThe UN honours the service and sacrifice of peacekeepersA new $15 million initiative to boost sustainable development in the Congo Basin 

Climate change: World likely to breach 1.5°C limit in next five yearsGaza: 50,000 children killed in less than 600 days warns UNICEFEssential supplies reach Sudanese hospital: WHO 

Gaza: UN agencies call for an aid ‘surge’ as Israeli distribution plan beginsUkraine’s battered communities face ongoing deadly Russian attacksSudan’s health system is on the brink of collapse, warns the WHO 

As a journalist who covers international humanitarian crises, I'm accustomed to seeing masses of refugees fleeing their homes for safer locations. But in Syria over the last several days, the reverse has happened. Thousands upon thousands of displaced people are now returning hom ... Show More

Syrian rebels have set fire to the tomb of ex-President Bashar al-Assad's father in his former hometown in the western Syrian Latakia province. Meanwhile, shops are reopening and people are returning to work in Damascus as day-to-day life gradually resumes. We look at the impact ... Show More

French academic Fabrice Balanche, who has written extensively on Syria and just returned from a ten-day -long trip there, believes Turkey is paying a high stakes poker game in Syria through its backing of a Salafist group that has made stunning advances against the regime of Pres ... Show More

Why the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria was so deadly and how rescue efforts are going. Read more: Early Monday morning, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Turkey and northwestern Syria. The shock was felt as far as Egypt, leveling buildings and killing ... Show More

Delayed talks for the second phase of the Israel-Gaza ceasefire remain in flux. Ten thousand members of the Alawite community have crossed into Lebanon over the past five days to escape the sectarian violence in Syria. Iran is sending mixed signals about the possibility of renego ... Show More

Chinese President Xi Jinping calls for an All-weather China-Africa Community with a Shared Future in the New Era as the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) gets underway. The UN Security Council again calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with some me ... Show More

President Biden says a Gaza ceasefire deal is "on the brink" of coming to fruition. Also: Oliviero Toscani, Benetton's controversial photographer, dies aged 82, and a Scottish island finally celebrates New Year. 

Syria has a new leader, and for thousands it is a time of celebration and optimism. But old enmities and fears about what comes next haunt the country. Michael Safi reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus 

Syria has formed a new government. The US has launched a new offensive on the Houthi rebels in Yemen, but experts have told The National that it is not an effective strategy. And tensions have flared between Israel and Lebanon after Beirut was bombed at the weekend.     This epis ... Show More

Russia has evacuated parts of a second region next to Ukraine after Kyiv sharply increased military activity near the border. It is just days after its biggest incursion into sovereign Russian territory since the start of the 2022 war. Israel has expanded evacuation orders in Kha ... Show More