Indigenous people demonstrate at the Cop30 in Belem, Brazil, 21 November 2025. (Keystone/EPA/Fraga Alves)

🌱As climate and conflict collide, Indigenous leaders confront overlapping crises at the UN. Hundreds of Indigenous delegations will discuss emerging issues, including inadequate humanitarian assistance, AI and resource extraction at a Human Rights Council meeting.

😷Record-breaking dust storms in 2025 sent pollution soaring in China and on US-Mexico border. A report by the World Meteorological Organization said that dust storms now affect over 150 countries, sometimes thousands of kilometres away from the deserts where they originate.

🔍︎Search for new Global Fund executive director intensifies. The next boss of the global health group will be pressed to secure new funding following major cuts and to manage relations with its largest contributor.

⛑️As Switzerland shakes up its foreign aid, will it stay committed to democracy? In June, the government announced a shift in funding toward short-term humanitarian assistance and away from development aid. In Latin America, where anti-democratic trends have been on the rise, development aid will be stopped.

👩🏾‍🤝‍👩🏼At least one million women have lost access to aid after funding cuts, UN says. Local aid organisations report having to turn away women and girls as a result of donor cuts over the past 18 months.