Emma Batha

Britain has written to Syrians who have rebuilt their lives in the country and applied to permanently settle, threatening to end their refugee status unless they can prove they still need protection.

Syrians said they felt "shocked and betrayed" by the letters from the Home Office, Britain's interior ministry, which could open the door to the risk of deportation.

The humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Sudan, unleashing horrific violence on children and uprooting nearly a quarter of the population, is the world's most neglected crisis of 2025, according to a poll of aid agencies.

Some 30 million Sudanese people – roughly equivalent to Australia's population - need assistance, but experts warn that warehouses are nearly empty, aid operations face collapse and two cities have tipped into famine.

Humanitarian crises in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo were named the most neglected emergencies of 2025 in a survey of aid agencies, with many highlighting the sheer scale of suffering compared to the international response.

But in a year that saw donors slash aid budgets and with headlines dominated by conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, many other emergencies flew under the radar.

When longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled a year ago, asylum seeker Fareed Fakhoury took his family out to celebrate - but his children were quick to worry whether their adopted homeland of Britain would now deport them.

A year later and their fears persist.

Britain has announced the most sweeping asylum reforms "in modern times" as it seeks to staunch public frustration over rising immigration, which has fuelled protests across the country this year.

Tough new rules aim to tackle the record numbers arriving on small boats from France and accelerate the removal of people whose asylum claims have been rejected.

From Athens to Delhi, soaring global temperatures are turning cities into infernos with deadly heatwaves putting lives and livelihoods at risk. 

Cities can be 5-10 degrees Celsius hotter than surrounding areas due to the urban heat island effect.

From fuel guzzled by fighter jets to wildfires sparked by shelling, the war in Ukraine has created vast amounts of planet-warming emissions, according to a new study that says Russia should pay for the damage to the global climate.

The first three years of conflict have generated almost 237 million metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG), equivalent to putting 120 million fossil-fuel cars on the road, or the combined annual emissions of Belgium, Austria and Ireland, according to researchers.

After two years of conflict in Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, 1.9 million people are displaced, and hundreds of thousands face starvation as famine spreads.

Israel launched its ground and air assault after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.

Fifteen-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Jamal Al-Attar set out to collect food from an Israeli-controlled distribution site in southern Gaza one day in August, but like many others he never made it back; he died after being shot in the chest.

The teenager is among hundreds of Gazans killed near aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private Israeli and U.S.-backed outfit set up in May that bypasses the U.N. co-ordinated system that has long supported the enclave.

With soaring numbers of migrants arriving in Britain on small boats from France, the government is testing a new 'one in, one out' scheme to crack down on the illegal crossings.

However the first deportations - due to start Monday - were cancelled after last-minute legal challenges, according to media reports.