Only around 24,000 of the 136,000 people who went missing under Syria's Assad regime have been freed from prisons in the month since the dictatorship collapsed, and thousands of families continue to search for their loved ones. The Syrian Network for Human Rights warns that chances of finding the lost are dwindling, citing the discovery of numerous mass graves.

The UN should mark its 80th anniversary by admitting Palestine as a member state to advance a two-state solution, widely regarded as essential for achieving Middle East peace, write Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution supporting this approach and the global community largely backs this solution as key to resolving the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the experts write.

Authorities in Kano, Nigeria, are working to remove over 5,000 children living on the city's streets -- where they are considered likely to be recruited by criminal groups as they struggle with economic hardship and family breakdowns -- and relocate them to rehabilitation camps where they could receive psychosocial support or education opportunities. Kano State accounts for 1.9 million of the 18.5 million children across Nigeria who are not enrolled in school, UNICEF reports.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has called on Muslim leaders to hold the Taliban accountable for "gender apartheid" at a Pakistan summit on girls' education. "The Taliban are explicit about their mission. They want to eliminate women and girls from every aspect of public life and erase them from society. Simply put, the Taliban do not see women as human beings. They cloak their crimes in cultural and religious justification," Yousafzai says.

The World Meteorological Organization has expressed condolences for those affected by wildfires in Los Angeles, which have burned more than 27,000 acres across several areas, exacerbated by below-average rainfall and strong winds. The fires have killed at least 24 and destroyed thousands of structures, and firefighters are bracing for the effects of more fierce Santa Ana winds.

Thousands of people have fled the southern Sudanese town of Um Rawaba amid clashes between Sudan's military and paramilitary forces, the International Organization for Migration reports. The ongoing conflict -- which began in April 2023 -- has created the largest displacement crisis in the world, with 11.5 million people forced from their homes, the UN says.