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.

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.

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.

A new report by Tsinghua University in Beijing has revealed that the Chinese Communist Party used cloud seeding to artificially bring down pollution levels for its centenary celebrations on July 1. The peer-reviewed study shows just how far China has come with this technology. FRANCE 24's Technology Editor Peter O'Brien breaks down how cloud seeding works, and the scale of China's ambitions to change the weather.

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.

The UNHCR has said Sudanese security forces shot a man in the head and raped several women during protests against the country's military leaders. More protests are expected over the coming days.

UN representatives traveling to the region described the situation as "appalling," calling on both countries to live up to their human rights obligations.

The United Nations has urged Belarus and Poland to address the "appalling situation" at their common border. Migrants were being pushed back and forth across the border and left with little food, clean water or shelter, the UN human rights office said.

The 10 most expensive weather disasters of 2021 caused more than $170 billion (€150 billion) in damages, UK charity Christian Aid has reported. That's up $20 billion on last year's figure.