African and Western nations have called for an urgent halt to fighting in Ethiopia as the conflict in Tigray marks one year. The US has sent a special envoy to the capital to push for cease-fire talks.

Top UN rights official Michelle Bachelet has slammed the military's violent repression following the October 25 coup. Sudan's prime minister is under house arrest.

The council's 15 member countries released the statement as Tigrayan rebels threatened to capture the capital, Addis Ababa, a year into the fighting. Twitter also has disabled the trends section on Ethiopia.

COVID and conflicts have pushed the number of people facing food insecurity to 45 million, with Afghanistan fast becoming the "world's largest humanitarian crisis."

Authorities in Portugal have launched raids after a tipoff that Portuguese troops may have smuggled contraband from the Central Afridan Republic. The country has 180 UN peacekeepers stationed in the African nation.

Women interviewed by Amnesty International said they were raped and thrashed, in some cases, in front of their children. A new report says many of them were unable to get medical help after the assault.

The UN's special adviser on genocide prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, says the parties fighting in Ethiopia's war have few options but to negotiate.

United Nations officials said staffers were rounded up by government authorities in raids targeting ethnic Tigrayans. Six have been arrested and released, while 16 others remain in custody.

Police have previously denied that the arrests are ethnically motivated. Almost 200 young children have starved to death in Tigray.

Are those protesting against Covid-19 restrictions just an angry few, or do they represent a much deeper malaise?As the Northern Hemisphere hunkers down for a new winter wave of Covid restrictions, backlash over these curbs is rearing up in Central Europe, the Netherlands and the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Some of the pushback is coming from fringe conspiracy theorists or muscle men, but many others have also lost trust in authorities and in what they see as heavy-handed measures and mixed messages. Is the unfiltered "anything goes" rhetoric that wins elections finally coming home to roost?

Humanitarian workers are racing against time to deliver aid as winter looms in Afghanistan, UN officials told DW. The situation on the ground is already desperate and "looks like it's going to get worse."

International travel picked up over the summer, but Covid-19 is still expected to cost the global tourism industry some €1.8 trillion in 2021. Also, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire remains optimistic about the recovery despite concerns over the Omicron variant, and farmers in India continue their protest movement despite concessions from the government.