German charity helps refugees in Lebanon learn online

More than half of families in Lebanon had at least one child who skipped a meal by October 2021 amid a "dramatic deterioration of living conditions", the UN's children's fund UNICEF said in a report released on Tuesday (November 23). Children have been hit hard by the country's deep economic crisis exacerbated by the global coronavirus pandemic which has left about eight in 10 people poor and threatens the education of some 700,000 children including 260,000 Lebanese, the report said.

France on Tuesday became the latest country to advise citizens to leave war-torn Ethiopia as Tigrayan rebels claimed to be advancing closer to the capital Addis Ababa.

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."

Twenty years ago, Portugal was plagued with heroin addiction and HIV infections. The country decided to take a new approach to the problem, becoming the first in the world to decriminalise drug taking. Since then, drug users are no longer treated as criminals to be locked up in jail, but as people who need medical care and supervision. The gamble has paid off, as our team found out.

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.

Fighting continues in Ethiopia, where rebel groups are advancing on the capital Addis Ababa. While much has been said about the northern front, where the army is at war with the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF), another armed group – allied to Tigrayans – is fighting from the south and west of the country. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) now controls a large swathe of territory. Together, the TDF and OLA plan to topple the government and take over the capital. The government accuses these rebel groups of committing crimes against civilians, including several massacres. Our regional correspondent reports.

Ethiopian authorities have closed all secondary schools so pupils can harvest crops for those on the frontline of the civil war, state-affiliated media says. ... More than 2 million pupils were already out of school due to the war which started in the northern region of Tigray last year, the government says.

The accused — Mahamat Said Abdel Kani — faces a slew of charges, including persecution, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts. The alleged militia leader rose to prominence amid a coup in Bangui in 2013.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is sounding "alarm bells" over a record high temperature in Siberia. The record temperature was logged in June 2020 in the town of Verkhoyansk.

A new report by Amnesty international has documented war crimes and atrocities committed during the fall of the internationally backed Afghan government in August.

2021 began with the promise of vaccines to the rescue. But as one variant begets another, rich nations talk of boosters and jabs for kids while much of the developing world still waits for first doses.

Around the world, coal-producing countries are struggling for a "just transition" away from fossil fuels. But for Donbas in war-torn Ukraine, shuttered mines threaten ecological disaster.