Footage shows a massive crowd filling streets to honour Sharif Osman Hadi, a leader of the 2024 student-led uprising, who was shot dead by a masked gunman while leaving a Dhaka mosque. Bangladesh’s interim leader Mohammad Yunus joined mourners days after Hadi died in a Singapore hospital.
Published On 20 Dec 202520 Dec 2025
Share
UN refugee agency says women and children arriving ‘exhausted and severely traumatised’ after fleeing eastern DRC.
More than 84,000 people have fled to Burundi from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amid a Rwanda-backed rebel offensive near the countries’ shared border, according to the latest United Nations figures.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday that Burundi had reached a “critical point” amid the influx of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing a surge in violence in the DRC’s South Kivu province.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Thousands of people crossing the border on foot and by boats each day have overwhelmed local resources, creating a major humanitarian emergency that requires immediate global support,” UNHCR said, noting that more than 200,000 people had now sought refuge in Burundi.
“Women and children are particularly affected, arriving exhausted and severely traumatised, bearing the physical and psychological marks of terrifying violence. Our teams met pregnant women, who shared that they had not eaten in days.”
The exodus began in early December when the M23 rebel group launched an assault that culminated in the capture of Uvira, a strategic city in the eastern DRC that is home to hundreds of thousands of people.
Refugees started crossing into Burundi on December 5, with numbers surging after M23 seized control of Uvira on December 10. On Wednesday, M23 said it was withdrawing after international condemnation of its attack on the city.
In Burundi, displaced families face difficult conditions at transit points and makeshift camps with minimal infrastructure, the UN said.
Many have sheltered under trees without adequate protection from the elements, and a lack of clean water and proper sanitation.
About half of those displaced are children less than the age of 18, along with numerous women, including some who are pregnant.
Ezechiel Nibigira, the Burundian president of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), reported 25,000 refugees in Gatumba in western Burundi, and nearly 40,000 in Buganda in the northwest, most of them “completely destitute”.
Augustin Minani, the administrator in Rumonge, told the AFP news agency that the situation was “catastrophic” and said “the vast majority are dying of hunger.”
Refugees recounted witnessing bombings and artillery fire, with some seeing relatives killed and others forced to abandon elderly family members who could not continue the journey.
M23 announced earlier this week it would begin withdrawing from Uvira, with the group’s leadership calling the move a “trust-building measure” to support United States- and Qatari-led peace efforts.
However, the Congolese Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya dismissed the announcement as a “diversion”, alleging it was meant to relieve pressure on Rwanda.
Local sources reported that M23 police and intelligence personnel remained deployed in the city on Thursday.
The offensive extended M23’s territorial gains this year after the group captured the major cities of Goma in January and Bukavu in February.
The rebel advance has given M23 control over substantial territory in the mineral-rich eastern DRC and severed a critical supply route for Congolese forces along the border with Burundi.
M23 launched the Uvira offensive less than a week after the presidents of the DRC and Rwanda met with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, to reaffirm their commitment to a peace agreement.
The rebels’ takeover of the city drew sharp criticism from Washington, with officials warning of consequences for what they described as Rwanda’s violation of the accord. Rwanda denies backing M23.
The fighting has killed more than 400 civilians in the DRC and displaced more than 200,000 since early December, according to regional officials and humanitarian organisations.
The broader conflict across the eastern part of the country, where more than 100 armed groups operate, has displaced more than seven million people, the UN refugee agency says.
Protesters called on President Pellegrini, usually an ally of Prime Minister Fico, to veto the changes.
Published On 16 Dec 202516 Dec 2025
Share
Thousands of people have rallied across Slovakia to protest against changes to the judicial system that opposition politicians and critics say are destroying the rule of law, Slovak media reported.
Protesters filled much of a central square in the capital of Bratislava, and there were protests in eight other cities on Tuesday.
list of 3 itemsend of list
The biggest opposition party, Progressive Slovakia, called the protest after Prime Minister Robert Fico‘s leftist-nationalist government pushed legislative changes through parliament last week that dismantle the whistleblower protection agency and change the way the state deals with crown witnesses.
“They took a chainsaw to the rule of law,” Michal Simecka, the leader of Progressive Slovakia, told the crowd in Bratislava, according to a live video that streamed online.
“Slovakia is the only country where the government approves laws to make life easier for criminals and mafia,” he also said.
People carried Slovak and European Union flags as well as placards with slogans, such as “Fico’s government is helping Mafia”, and chanted “Enough of Fico” and “Shame!”
Fico’s critics claim that, under his government, Slovakia is following Hungary’s lead under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Fico’s administration argues that the old whistleblower agency was politically abused. The administration has also weakened criminal codes for financial crimes, revamped the public broadcaster and pushed constitutional changes asserting national sovereignty over some EU laws, which has raised European Commission scrutiny.
Fico’s government has faced several large protests since coming to power in 2023. Tuesday’s rally was one of the biggest since last February, when tens of thousands demonstrated against what critics say is an increasingly pro-Russian foreign policy.
Scientists say up to 4,000 glaciers could melt annually if global warming is not curbed.
Published On 16 Dec 202516 Dec 2025
Share
The world could lose thousands of glaciers each year over the coming decades unless global warming is curbed, leaving only a fraction remaining by the end of the century, scientists warn.
A scientific study published on Monday in Nature Climate Change warned that unless governments take action now, the planet could reach a stage of “peak glacier extinction” by midcentury with up to 4,000 melting each year.
list of 3 itemsend of list
About 200,000 glaciers remain in the world, and about 750 disappear each year. That rate could rise more than fivefold if global temperatures soar by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels and accelerate global warming, according to the report, which predicted only 18,288 glaciers would remain by the end of the century.
Even if governments meet their pledges to limit warming to 1.5C (2.7F) under the Paris Agreement, the world could still end up losing 2,000 glaciers a year by 2041. At that pace, a little more than half of the planet’s glaciers would be gone by 2100.
That best case scenario appears unlikely. The United Nations Environment Programme already warned last month that warming is on track to exceed 1.5C in the next few years. It predicted that even if countries meet promises they have made in their climate action plans, the planet will warm 2.3C to 2.5C (4.1F to 4.5F) by the end of the century.
Monday’s study was published at the close of the UN’s International Year of Glacier Preservation with the findings intended to “underscore the urgency of ambitious climate policy”.
“The difference between losing 2,000 and 4,000 glaciers per year by the middle of the century is determined by near-term policies and societal decisions taken today,” the study said.
Coauthor Matthias Huss, a glacier expert at ETH Zurich university, took part in 2019 in a symbolic funeral for the Pizol glacier in the Swiss Alps.
“The loss of glaciers that we are speaking about here is more than just a scientific concern. It really touches our hearts,” he said.
Thousands of people joined demonstrations across Brazil to protest against a bill that would reduce the prison sentence of former President, Jair Bolsonaro. He was jailed for plotting a failed coup after losing the elections in 2022.
Published On 15 Dec 202515 Dec 2025
Share
A ceasefire deal appears distant as energy facilities are hit in Ukraine and Russia says a drone has killed two people.
Russian attacks have left thousands without power in Ukraine, while a drone attack killed two people in Russia, as United States-led peace talks on ending the war, deep in its fourth year, press on.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russian night-time attacks damaged more than a dozen civilian facilities, disrupting power in seven regions.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“It is important that everyone now sees what Russia is doing… for this is clearly not about ending the war,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “They still aim to destroy our state and inflict maximum pain on our people.”
Kyiv and its Western allies have repeatedly said Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponising” the cold.
Russian attacks left parts of the Kherson region, including the regional capital, Kherson, without power, according to regional head Oleksandr Prokudin.
Russian authorities in the southwestern Saratov region, home to an important Russian army base, said a drone killed two people and damaged a residential building. Several windows were also blown out at a kindergarten and clinic.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it had shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
The latest round of attacks came after Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov said on Friday that Russian police and National Guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, which comprises the fiercely contested Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and oversee the industry-rich region, even if a peace settlement ends Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has rejected Moscow’s demands to maintain its presence in Donbas post-war as US-led negotiations drag on.
Germany is set to host Zelenskyy on Monday for talks as peace efforts gain momentum and European leaders seek to steer negotiations. US negotiators have for months tried to navigate the demands of each side as US President Donald Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war.
The search for possible compromises has run into a major obstacle over who keeps Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russian forces. Ukraine, the US and European powers are also still trying to outline the contours of security guarantees for Kyiv that could be accepted by Moscow.
In the absence of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the conflict, hostilities recently intensified in the Black Sea, with Russian forces attacking two Ukrainian ports and damaging three Turkish-owned vessels, including a ship carrying food supplies.
An attack on the city of Odesa on Friday caused grain silos to catch fire at the port, according to Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister, Oleksii Kuleba. Posting video footage on social media of firefighters tackling a blaze on board what he described as a “civilian vessel” in Chornomorsk, Zelenskyy said the Russian attacks “had no … military purpose whatsoever”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned that the Black Sea should not turn into an “area of confrontation”.
“Everyone needs safe navigation in the Black Sea,” Erdogan said, calling for a “limited ceasefire” in attacks on ports and energy facilities. Turkiye controls the Bosphorus Strait, a key passage for transporting Ukrainian grain and Russian oil towards the Mediterranean.
MIAMI — President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy split more than 5,000 children from their families at the Mexico border during his first term, when images of babies and toddlers taken from the arms of mothers sparked global condemnation.
Seven years later, families are being separated but in a much different way. With illegal border crossings at their lowest levels in seven decades, a push for mass deportations is dividing families of mixed legal status inside the U.S.
Federal officials and their local law enforcement partners are detaining tens of thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants. Detainees are moved repeatedly, then deported, or held in poor conditions for weeks or months before asking to go home.
The federal government was holding an average of more than 66,000 people in November, the highest on record.
During the first Trump administration, families were forcibly separated at the border and authorities struggled to find children in a vast shelter system because government computer systems weren’t linked. Now parents inside the United States are being arrested by immigration authorities and separated from their families during prolonged detention. Or, they choose to have their children remain in the U.S. after an adult is deported, many after years or decades here.
The Trump administration and its anti-immigration backers see “unprecedented success” and Trump’s top border adviser Tom Homan told reporters in April that “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead.”
Three families separated by migration enforcement in recent months told The Associated Press that their dreams of better, freer lives had clashed with Washington’s new immigration policy and their existence is anguished without knowing if they will see their loved ones again.
For them, migration marked the possible start of permanent separation between parents and children, the source of deep pain and uncertainty.
Antonio Laverde left Venezuela for the U.S. in 2022 and crossed the border illegally, then requested asylum.
He got a work permit and a driver’s license and worked as an Uber driver in Miami, sharing homes with other immigrants so he could send money to relatives in Venezuela and Florida.
Laverde’s wife Jakelin Pasedo and their sons followed him from Venezuela to Miami in December 2024. Pasedo focused on caring for her sons while her husband earned enough to support the family. Pasedo and the kids got refugee status but Laverde, 39, never obtained it and as he left for work one early June morning, he was arrested by federal agents.
Pasedo says it was a case of mistaken identity by agents hunting for a suspect in their shared housing. In the end, she and her children, then 3 and 5, remember the agents cuffing Laverde at gunpoint.
“They got sick with fever, crying for their father, asking for him,” Pasedo said.
Laverde was held at Broward Transitional Center, a detention facility in Pompano Beach, Fla. In September, after three months detention, he asked to return to Venezuela.
Pasedo, 39, however, has no plans to go back. She fears she could be arrested or kidnapped for criticizing the socialist government and belonging to the political opposition.
She works cleaning offices and, despite all the obstacles, hopes to reunify with her husband someday in the U.S.
Yaoska’s husband was a political activist in Nicaragua, a country tight in the grasp of autocratic married co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
She remembers her husband getting death threats and being beaten by police when he refused to participate in a pro-government march.
Yaoska only used her first name and requested anonymity for her husband to protect him from the Nicaraguan government.
The couple fled Nicaragua for the U.S. with their 10-year-old son in 2022, crossing the border and getting immigration parole. Settling down in Miami, they applied for asylum and had a second son, who has U.S. citizenship. Yaoska is now five months pregnant with their third child.
In late August, Yaoska, 32, went to an appointment at the South Florida office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her family accompanied her. Her husband, 35, was detained and failed his credible fear interview, according to a court document.
Yaoska was released under 24-hour supervision by a GPS watch that she cannot remove. Her husband was deported to Nicaragua after three months at the Krome Detention Center, the United States’ oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse.
Yaoska now shares family news with her husband by phone. The children are struggling without their father, she said.
“It’s so hard to see my children like this. They arrested him right in front of them,” Yaoska said, her voice trembling.
They don’t want to eat and are often sick. The youngest wakes up at night asking for him.
“I’m afraid in Nicaragua,” she said. “But I’m scared here too.”
Yaoska said her work authorization is valid until 2028 but the future is frightening and uncertain.
“I’ve applied to several job agencies, but nobody calls me back,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”
Edgar left Guatemala more than two decades ago. Working construction, he started a family in South Florida with Amavilia, a fellow undocumented Guatemalan migrant.
The arrival of their son brought them joy.
“He was so happy with the baby — he loved him,” said Amavilia, 31. “He told me he was going to see him grow up and walk.”
But within a few days, Edgar was detained on a 2016 warrant for driving without a license in Homestead, the small agricultural city where he lived in South Florida.
She and her husband declined to provide their last names because they are worried about repercussion from U.S. immigration officials.
Amavilia expected his release within 48 hours. Instead, Edgar, who declined to be interviewed, was turned over to immigration officials and moved to Krome.
“I fell into despair. I didn’t know what to do,” Amavilia said. “I can’t go.”
Edgar, 45, was deported to Guatemala on June 8.
After Edgar’s detention, Amavilia couldn’t pay the $950 rent for the two-bedroom apartment she shares with another immigrant. For the first three months, she received donations from immigration advocates.
Today, breastfeeding and caring for two children, she wakes up at 3 a.m. to cook lunches she sells for $10 each.
She walks with her son in a stroller to take her daughter to school, then spends afternoons selling homemade ice cream and chocolate-covered bananas door to door with her two children.
Amavilia crossed the border in September 2023 and did not seek asylum or any type of legal status. She said her daughter grows anxious around police. She urges her to stay calm, smile and walk with confidence.
“I’m afraid to go out, but I always go out entrusting myself to God,” she said. “Every time I return home, I feel happy and grateful.”
Salomon writes for the Associated Press.
Paul LynchBBC Shared Data Unit
Getty ImagesThousands of flood defences meant to protect multiple homes or businesses in England were below the required condition when winter began, a new analysis has found.
The 6,498 “high consequence” defences were among about 8,500 that were not fully working as intended due to erosion, damage or being overgrown.
Exclusive figures obtained by the BBC show that, as of 20 October, almost 9% of the 98,000 defences inspected by the Environment Agency were below condition.
While the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs says record levels of investment have improved the defence network since 2024, stark disparities remain regionally.
More than 40% of flood defences were below the standard in North Tyneside, Brentwood in Essex and Hart in Hampshire – the highest proportions in the country.
A fifth of all the defences along the Thames corridor, passing Oxfordshire, parts of Surrey and Greater London, were also failing to meet the required condition due to a mix of record rainfall and tidal storm surges.
Storm Bram brought strong winds and heavy rain to the UK on Tuesday, with dozens of flood warnings in place.
Flooding was reported on riverside streets in York, part of the M66 in Greater Manchester and in Devon and Cornwall, where train services were disrupted.
Flood defences in England range from man-made walls, embankments and storm drains to natural areas of high ground.
The Environment Agency inspects almost all the defences intended to keep rivers from spilling into vulnerable towns and cities.
“Any flood defence that is not operating as close to 100% efficiency as possible is of a concern,” said Dave Throup, a former Environment Agency area manager for the Midlands.
“It’s difficult to say why that is happening. Is it a lack of money? Or is it the bashing that these flood defences have taken over the last three or four years as a result of many very large flood incidents? It’s very difficult to pull that apart.”
Data shows the scale of the challenge facing the government’s repair efforts, despite ministers pledging £2.65bn over two years to build and restore more than 1,000 flood defences across England.
During its routine inspections, the Environment Agency gives flood defences a condition score out of five. This is then measured against a target score that reflects the required condition.
Defences can be marked down for having cracks and leaks. Sometimes they can be overgrown with vegetation or, in the case of drains and sluices, blocked.
The Environment Agency said a defence could still work correctly despite being in a poorer condition.
Floods minister Emma Hardy said the Labour government had inhereted flood defences in the “poorest condition on record” after “years of under-investment”.
She said: “Our immediate response was to redirect £108m into maintenance and repair works. But this is just the start.
“We’re investing at least £10.5bn – the largest programme ever – in flood defences until 2036. This will build new defences and repair assets across the country, protecting our communities for decades to come.”
The Environment Agency’s longer-term target is for just 2% of its high consequence defences to be below target condition. The current figure is near 9%.
In recent years, there have been several high-profile failures of flood protections.
More than 600 homes were evacuated in 2019 when the River Steeping burst its banks near Wainfleet, Lincolnshire. An official report found an embankment constructed in 1968 had collapsed, despite the Environment Agency being aware of its vulnerabilities.
However, the BBC found high consequence flood defences were about 45% more likely to be failing if they were maintained by a third-party other than the Environment Agency.
The agency only looks after a third of the defences it inspects regularly. A further third are maintained by private individuals, companies or charities and the remainder are mainly the responsibility of local councils.
In January, the complex responsibillities around flood protections nearly led to disaster at one Leicestershire neighbourhood.
Residents in the Grange Park estate in Loughborough say they were forced to dig their own flood defences when a privately owned pond that was meant to protect their homes overflowed.
The large hollow is designed to store floodwater, but residents there have raised concerns about its capacity during heavy storms. It completely filled in January, when the county was hit by unprecedented levels of rain and water began pouring towards front doors.
William H Davis Homes, which owned the pond at the time, said a blockage on a neighbouring parcel of land had been the cause – but concerned residents say they did not have the time to navigate a web of responsibility as the water crept onwards.
In near-freezing conditions, about 30 people dug trenches into the green area outside their homes to divert the flow of water.
Engineer Katie Anderson helped lead the effort.
“If everyone hadn’t pulled together, I don’t want to think what could’ve happened,” she said.
Confusion reigned over who they could turn to for help. Katie says calls to their water company Severn Trent, the borough council and the developer went nowhere and time was running out.
“They all said it wasn’t their problem,” she added.
The pond was only formally adopted by Charnwood Borough Council in October – but no upgrades have yet been made to increase its capacity.
A council spokesperson said initial investigations showed the drainage scheme was working “as intended”. An independent survey was under way and any recommendations from that would be considered, it added.
Katie, meanwhile, said she would be willing to take matters into her own hands again if floodwater threatened to reach her home.
The Environment Agency said wetter winters were making the task of repairing flood defences more difficult than ever.
Six of the 10 wettest winter half-years (October to March) on record for England and Wales so far have been in the 21st Century.
Last winter, the UK was hit by six named storms. Among them, storms Bert and Connall caused severe flooding in England during November.
The Thames corridor saw some of the biggest impact from the past two winters. The Environment Agency says it has repaired many of the highest risk defences, but many remain below their required condition, the vast majority of which are maintained by third parties.
Prof Hannah Cloke OBE, a leading flood expert at the University of Reading, said the BBC’s findings had to be viewed in context as the data was “not perfect”.
“We’ve got some percentages here – but that doesn’t tell us exactly what would happen if each of those flood defences did fail,” she said, pointing to the fact a defence such as the Thames barrier was of greater importance than a parcel of natural high ground by a small brook.
Likewise, some defences may be in a good condition but may not have been designed effectively in the first place. Defences built five years ago were already being overtopped by floods, she said.
Prof Cloke said the government needed to invest in “catchment management” schemes that limit the speed of rainwater entering river systems.
These include tree planting or the digging of dips and hollows into the landscape, but are often hampered because a large proportion of river catchments are on private land.
“We can maintain our flood defences, we can try and protect property, but actually, if we can catch the rain where it falls that can really help in terms of making sure that we don’t have the floodwaters running downstream,” she added.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Protecting communities in England from the devastating impact of flooding is a top priority – which is more important than ever as climate change brings more extreme weather.
“Each year, we complete up to 165,000 inspections of flood assets across the country and have recently redirected £108m into repairs and maintenance. This will help to ensure the strongest protection for nearby communities.”