STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan 13 2026 (IPS)* – At the moment, ICE’s advancement in the U.S. is apparently dividing the nation’s population into desired and undesirable elements.
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Refugees by Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was born after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and intended to be a response to terrorism.
However, with Donald Trump’s return to the White House, federal immigration agents have become the president’s praetorian guard, implementing his immigration politics.
ICE has currently 22,000 employees, a number destined to grow thanks to new recruits. Its budget is USD 30 billion a year. During 2025, the agency’s spending on fire arms has grown 600 percent.
(UN News)* —Three months into the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the UN and partners have delivered tonnes of assistance items and carried out critical repairs, but this is only a temporary “Band-Aid” solution, a veteran aid worker warned.
UN News | Many Palestinian families are living in poorly equipped shelters that are highly vulnerable to flooding, leaving people inevitably exposed to harsh, stormy weather.
“The humanitarian situation and crisis in Gaza is far from being over,” Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office OCHAsaid on Friday [] in an update to journalists in Jerusalem.
“For the Palestinians in Gaza, their lives continue to be defined by displacement, trauma, uncertainty, and deprivation.”
This has been further compounded by “severe recurrent storms that not only destroy people’s meagre belongings, but they’re also deadly – whether through crumbling buildings or by taking the lives of children who are highly susceptible to the cold”.
BRATISLAVA, Jan 14 2026 (IPS)* –Israel must lift all restrictions on medicine, food and aid coming into Gaza, rights groups have demanded, as two reports released today (Jan 14) document how maternal and reproductive healthcare have been all but destroyed in the country.
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Cardiologist Dr. Marwan Sultan, then Director of the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza, in February 2025 showing damage to hospital equipment following an Israeli attack on the facility a few months prior. In July 2025, Dr. Sultan was killed in an Israeli strike on the apartment where he was sheltering with his family. Credit: PHR/GHRC
(UN News)* —The temporary closure of a UN-run health centre in East Jerusalem is the latest phase in “a pattern of deliberate disregard” for international law, the head of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Wednesday [].
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UNRWA | UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem
Israeli forces stormed the UNRWA-operated health centre on Monday and ordered it to close for 30 days. They also demanded the removal of UN signage.
Furthermore, water and electricity supply to multiple UNRWA facilities are scheduled to be cut off in the coming weeks, affecting schools, health centres and other critical buildings.
(Beirut) –Saudiauthorities executed at least 356 people in 2025, setting a new record in the country for the highest number of executions in one year since monitoring began, Human Rights Watch on 13 January 2026 said.
(UN News)* — As anti-government demonstrations continue across Iran, the UN human rights chief said on Tuesday [] that he was horrified at the mounting violence directed by security forces against protestors, with reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested.
Volker Türk urged the authorities to immediately halt all forms of violence and repression against peaceful protestors and to restore full access to the internet and telecommunications.
“The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” he said.
Since 28 December, citizens have taken to the streets in all provinces of Iran, initially to voice their frustration over record inflation, soaring food prices and the sudden collapse of the national currency.
(UN News)* — Conflict-related sexual violence in Sri Lanka remains largely unaddressed more than 15 years after the end of the civil war, with survivors still denied justice, recognition and reparations, according to a new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Tuesday [].
It concludes that a legacy of impunity for wartime abuses continues to shape the lives of survivors, many of whom suffer long-term physical injuries, psychological trauma and social exclusion.
(UN News)* —Public hearings opened on Monday [] at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a landmark case brought by the Gambia against Myanmar, alleging violations of the Genocide Convention over the military’s treatment of the Rohingya minority.
(UN News)* — Airstrikes, drone attacks and hypothermia continue in Gaza despite the ceasefire, with more than 100 youngsters killed since early October, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday [].
“That’s roughly a girl or a boy killed here every day during a ceasefire,”UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.
“These children are killed from airstrikes, drone strikes, including suicide drones,” he said, speaking from Gaza City. “They’re killed from tank shelling, they’re killed from live ammunition, they’re killed from [remote-controlled] quadcopters.”
(UN News)* — The humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip remains extremely serious, with harsh winter weather threatening to reverse recent gains in aid delivery, the United Nations said on Monday [].
Briefing correspondents in New York, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric reported that ongoing rainstorms are damaging and destroying fragile shelters, leaving large numbers of displaced people exposed to the cold.
“To help address immense shelter needs, during the past week our partners delivered supplies to 28,000 families, including 1,600 tents, 16,000 tarpaulins and 27,000 blankets,” Mr. Dujarric said.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 