(UN News)* — The world is entering a new era of crisis for children; climate change, inequality and conflict are disrupting their lives and limiting their futures, an authoritative study from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns.
At the beginning of each year, UNICEF looks ahead to the risks that children are likely to face and suggests ways to reduce the potential harm.
The latest report, Prospects for Children 2025: Building Resilient Systems for Children’s Futures, demands strengthening national systems that are designed to mitigate the impacts of crises on children and ensure they have access to the support they need.
Here is a breakdown of the main trends to look out for in 2025:
(UN News)* — UN weather experts from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Friday [] that 2024 was the hottest year on record, at 1.55 degrees Celsius (C) above pre-industrial temperatures.
“We saw extraordinary land, sea surface temperatures, extraordinary ocean heat accompanied by very extreme weather affecting many countries around the world, destroying lives, livelihoods, hopes and dreams,”WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said.
(UN News)* — Israeli authorities continue to deny UN-led efforts to reach North Gaza with lifesaving aid, including the most recent attempt on Friday [10], according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
On Thursday [9], only 10 out of 21 planned humanitarian movements were facilitated by the Israeli authorities.
Seven were denied outright, three were impeded and one was cancelled due to security and logistical challenges, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, at Friday’s media briefing in New York.
OCHA is also deeply concerned about the impact that dwindling fuel supplies are having on essential services in Gaza.
(UN News)* —The horrors in Gaza show no signs of abating, the UN said on Thursday [], noting that the Ministry of Health reports that over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed there since October 2023, most of them women and children.
Tragically in the last month alone, eight newborns have died of hypothermia and 74 children have already died amid the brutal conditions of winter in 2025.
“We enter this New Year carrying the same horrors as the last – there’s been no progress and no solace. Children are now freezing to death,” Louise Tidewater from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, told UN News.
Meanwhile, hostilities continue with relentless operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) causing mass casualties and widespread destruction.
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 9 2025 (IPS)* – The debt disaster is back. Indeed, the aid agency Cafod reports that developing countries today face “the most acute debt crisis in history”.
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Credit: Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
At least 54 countries are in a debt crisis – more than double the number in 2010. A further 57 countries are at risk of debt crisis. In the past decade, interest payments for developing countries overall have risen by 64%, and for Africa by 132%.
African countries are paying over 100 billion dollars a year to creditors. The share of African countries’ budgets going on debt payments is four times higher than in 2010.
7 January 2025 (UNEP)* —In the unusually hot summer of 2016, a bacterium that causes anthrax killed more than 2,500 reindeer in Siberia’s remote Yamal Peninsula, according to one study.
Credit: AFP/Olivier Morin
Normally locked deep in a layer of permanently frozen land, or permafrost, the once-dormant pathogen eventually spread to humans, claiming the life of a 12-year-old boy and causing dozens of others to fall ill.
Some researchers believe the outbreak is a sign of things to come. As climate change rapidly warms the Artic, scientists say it could unleash a wave of potentially deadly microbes that for centuries have been trapped in ice.
Text and graphics: Simon Randles | Research: Farah Bayadsi
“Look at the olives,” says Adlah Taha Abdallah Ali, 66, in the fields of her home village of Al Khadr, Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank. “See how they are dry … they did not get their share of water. Because of the high temperatures, there is not much oil in them.”
Adlah, like her fellow farmers across the region, is battling with the effects of a warming planet.
DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 3 2025 (IPS)* – As the dust settled over Kariakoo’s bustling streets, Halima Abdallah’s voice trembled through the cracks of a collapsed four-story building.
“Help me, please! I don’t get air,” she gasped, trapped under the rubble.
The recent collapse of a high-rise building in Dar es Salaam, killing 16 people and injuring more than 80, has reignited concerns about the city’s disaster preparedness. Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS
For four hours, rescue workers scrambled to locate her. Their efforts, hampered by the lack of proper equipment, relied on tools hastily borrowed from a private company. By the time they reached her, it was too late. Abdallah had died.
Geneva, 03 January 2025 (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is deeply alarmed by the devastating impact of winter rains and freezing temperatures on displaced Palestinians in Gaza, adding to the unparalleled humanitarian catastrophe.
(UN News)* —Newborns and infants in Gaza have reportedly died of hypothermia, deaths described by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as preventable. The news comes amid continued Israeli bombardments and an expected further drop in temperatures.
In Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes are sheltering in tents, the temperatures are expected to drop further in the coming days.
Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, reported in a statement on Friday [] that, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, four newborns and infants died in recent days from hypothermia.
Credit: AFP/Olivier Morin
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 