News Links - January 31, 2026

Saturday, 31 January 2026

UN

UN Faces Imminent Financial Collapse Without Member Payments - Secretary-General António Guterres warned the UN risks "imminent financial collapse" by July unless member states pay their dues, with the United States owing approximately $2.2 billion for 2025 and 2026 combined, representing 95% of outstanding arrears. The UN ended 2025 with a record $1.568 billion in unpaid dues—more than double the previous year—while being forced to return $227 million in credits to countries for unspent budget allocations despite never receiving those funds. Senior UN officials said the organization would have to shut down New York headquarters by August, cancel the September General Assembly, and close the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs if payments are not received, despite recent pledges of $2 billion from the Trump administration and congressional budget preservation. 

USA

Brooklyn Mural Honors 18,457 Gaza Children Killed - Artist Phil Buehler unveiled the "Wall of Tears," a 50-foot mural listing every child killed in Gaza from October 2023 to July 2025, opening on the second anniversary of five-year-old Hind Rajab's death. The installation displays names in order of death based on Gaza health ministry data, interspersed with photos and stories of individual children. The mural spans the block at 12 Grattan Street in Brooklyn, designed to draw viewers from seeing an abstract pattern to confronting thousands of individual names and faces of children whose lives were cut short.

Israel / Gaza

Israel Accepts Gaza Death Toll After Years of Denial - Israeli military officials acknowledged approximately 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, accepting Gaza health authorities' data as "largely accurate" after years of dismissing it as "Hamas propaganda." The admission suggests over two-thirds of casualties were non-combatants by Israel's own accounting, contradicting Prime Minister Netanyahu's previous claim of 50% civilian casualties. The military also announced it would reopen the Rafah crossing on Sunday for the first time since seizing control in May 2024, allowing Palestinians who left Gaza to apply to return under European Union supervision but Israeli control. 

Children Among 28 Killed in Gaza Strikes - At least 28 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes across Gaza on Saturday, the heaviest attacks since the second phase of the Trump-brokered ceasefire began earlier this month. Three young children and two women died when a strike hit a residential apartment in Gaza City, with their uncle finding his three nieces' bodies in the street, while seven members of one displaced family were killed when helicopter gunships struck their tent in Khan Younis. Israel said the strikes responded to Hamas violations, while Hamas condemned the attacks as continuing "brutal war of genocide," with 509 Palestinians killed since the October 2025 ceasefire began.

Syria

Critical Supplies Depleted at Syria's Al-Hol Camp - Save the Children warned that food, water, and medicine are running dangerously low at al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, home to over 24,000 people including children and women linked to ISIS, as ongoing clashes between government forces and Syrian Democratic Forces block humanitarian aid deliveries. The camp was captured by government forces a week ago after intense fighting, forcing aid agencies to suspend regular operations with the main access road remaining unsafe for humanitarian workers. 

Yemen

Malnourished in areas under Houthi control - UNICEF reported treating 166,000 severely malnourished children in three Houthi-controlled governorates in northern Yemen, with 9,000 children receiving inpatient care for complications.