German FM visits Ukrainian city near frontline

The Policlinico Tor Vergata hospital in Rome organises a concert along its corridors to provide some comfort to its health staff, as the number of coronavirus patients surges.

Parts of the UK have entered a third lockdown due to the pandemic, with London's NHS frontline staff preparing for an "inevitable" coronavirus case surge following Christmas and New Year's Eve gatherings. DW reports.

When protests first flared in 2011 against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Ahmad Mansour took to the streets of Aleppo with his high school-age peers. But as the uprising morphed into armed clashes, he joined the ranks of the armed opposition. Ten years later, he is still fighting. Now the head of his own battalion in Idlib, the 26-year-old has lost countless comrades, but his stance against Assad is unwavering.

Chad's President Idriss Deby has died while visiting troops on the frontline of a battle against rebels, an army spokesman said. David Doyle has more.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.⁣

What are the chances in 2021 of a world leader dying on the battlefield? Chad's leader of 31 years succumbed to his wounds after once again going to the front. Idriss Deby was one of those African strongmen that seemed to have nine lives. He had gone to face down yet another rebellion or foreign incursion, this time an uprising in the centre-west of that sprawling Sahelian country. Deby's death at 68 was announced one day after coasting to another easy re-election, this time with almost 80 percent of the provisional vote. So whodunnit and why?

In the heart of territory under siege from the Taliban, one of Afghanistan's most important hydroelectric dams is at the centre of a power struggle that symbolises the battle between the government and insurgents.

A Taiwan restaurateur and his friends dress up as spiderman and ninja turtle while they deliver donations of lunch boxes to frontline medical staff, in an effort to put a smile on the island's healthcare workers as they deal with a sudden surge of infections.

Grace a robotic medical assistant was created to relieve the burden on the frontline medical staff who have been overworked due to the pandemic. The robot is designed to interact with people in isolation.

Coastal cities are on the "frontline" of the climate crisis, with swelling oceans redrawing the map and putting hundreds of millions at risk. That's the warning of an unpublished draft report by the UN's climate science advisory panel, seen exclusively by AFP, the most extensive compendium to date of the urgent climate threats facing the planet.

Coastal cities are on the "frontline" of the climate crisis, with swelling oceans redrawing the map and putting hundreds of millions at risk. That's the warning of an unpublished draft report by the UN's climate science advisory panel, seen exclusively by AFP, the most extensive compendium to date of the urgent climate threats facing the planet. Among the cities featured in the report is Cape Town, where 100,000 households are exposed to flooding in a city riven by deep poverty and the legacy of apartheid.

Clashes between rebels and Yemeni government fighters take place at Marib's Al-Kassara frontline in Yemen, following a renewed offensive by Huthi insurgents.