UKRAINE: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today it has registered four executions of Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian troops since mid-November.

The UN is also investigating reports of at least three other executions by the Ukrainians.

CLIMATE: Natural disasters caused some $220 billion (£164bn) in global economic losses in 2025, according to projections by reinsurer Swiss Re released today.

The company, which insures insurance companies, said despite the staggering cost of climate catastrophes such as hurricanes and wildfires, the level of losses was actually an improvement on the previous year, when the world was hot for a massive $327bn (£244bn).

CONGO: Rwanda-backed M23 militia said today they will withdraw from Uvira, the strategic city in eastern Congo seized last week, as fighting in the region escalated despite a United States mediated peace deal.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance, which includes M23, said the withdrawal was requested by the US and is a “unilateral trust-building measure” to facilitate the peace process.

IRAN: A passenger bus overturned, killing 13 people and injuring over a dozen others on a highway in central Iran, the IRNA news agency reported today.

The bus was travelling late on Monday from Isfahan to the north-eastern city of Mashhad when it struck the highway’s central guardrail, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a taxi before flipping over, police said.

Eleven bus passengers and two people who were in the taxi were killed in the crash, while six women and seven men were hospitalised, IRNA said.