The world’s newest nation, South Sudan, has been ravaged by civil war and political infighting since 2013. After a peace agreement failed to unite the country last July, the conflict quickly spread to previously unaffected areas. That’s when the war came to Angelina Nyatuoy’s home in Mirmir, a small province of Panyijar County, located in South Sudan’s Unity state.

When one of the strongest storms in recorded history slammed the Philippines in 2013, more than 6,000 people lost their lives and 90 percent of homes in the hardest hit areas were damaged or destroyed.

Since 2014, economic upheaval and political turmoil in Venezuela have caused 1.5 million people to flee the country, and this number is likely to rise as the crisis intensifies. Escaping devastating shortages, unemployment and soaring inflation, these refugees turn often to their country's closest neighbor, Colombia.

From major cities to remote villages, women and girls worldwide face harassment, violence, discrimination and a lack of equal opportunities. Their lives are threatened, their potential robbed. This is especially – brutally – true for women and girls in the world’s conflict zones. According to International Rescue Committee violence prevention experts, the toughest places to be a woman today are:

An Iraqi family's first Christmas at home after ISIS

“We’ve been buried alive:” Inside Eastern Ghouta’s underground bunkers. Since aerial assaults intensified in this suburb of Damascus on Feb. 18, many residents have moved into basements or other underground shelters, in order to escape the bombardment, which has killed more than 1,700 civilians and injured over 5,000.

Fresh from filming the latest season of Showtime’s Homeland,actor and activist Mandy Patinkin traveled to Uganda this month with the International Rescue Committee to see what happens when refugees are given welcome. Along with his wife Kathryn and son Isaac he met resilient, resourceful people who are restarting their lives in a country that has made a choice to build bridges, not walls.

Joining renowned hip hop recording artist, actor, poet and one of the UK’s best-loved podcasters Scroobius Pip was not an ‘average day in the office.’

Cholera is an ancient illness that today kills only the poorest and most vulnerable people. How is it affecting Yemen and East Africa?

If you’re struggling to remember positive news about 2024, you’re not alone. Here are 8 stories that inspired us this year and gave us hope for 2025.