People examine documents at Sednaya Prison near Damascus where thousands were said to be detained and tortured by the Assad regime over the last decade, on 10 December 2024, only two days after the fall of the regime. (Keystone/Newscom/Asaad al-Asaad)

🎀ICRC on finding Syria’s disappeared: ‘Rebuilding family ties helps rebuild communities’. ICRC spokesperson Christian Cardon speaks about the humanitarian situation following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and why reuniting long-estranged families is central to the country’s reconstruction.

⚕️‘Give them some space’: WHO director general on Trump nomination of RFK Jr as US health secretary. Tedros Adhanom Ghebryesus shrugged off criticism waged against the anti-vax nominee, whom 77 Nobel laureates recently said would put American public health “in jeopardy”.

⛔Swiss parliament approves a five-year ban on Hamas. The two chambers greenlighted the Swiss government’s draft bill to outlaw the Palestinian group following the 7 October attacks. A similar proposal to ban the Lebanese group Hezbollah is also under consideration.

💡Revitalising the UN – some advice from a 102-year-old. Edith Ballantyne, formerly a leading campaigner for a better United Nations with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, looks back on her career promoting fairer human rights and her hopes for the future of the international organisation.

༄La Niña may form, heat may not relent: WMO. The weather-cooling phenomenon could develop in the next three months, but its short-lived impact won’t be enough to counter the heat from greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.