This feature highlights the vital work of Barbados’ soil technicians, as they explain the skill, precision, and care involved in preparing graves.

INSIDER'S REPORT | THE WORK OF THE SHADOWS

On Sunday, a foot patrol of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was targeted by an Israeli army Merkava tank positioned inside Lebanese territory. Israel said it had been a case of “misidentification”.

UN News’s Nancy Sarkis spoke to UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel, who said the incident is part of a “deeply worrying escalation” along the Blue Line of separation. 

Ms. Ardiel pointed to warning fire near civilians and new Israeli-built concrete walls that straddle the Blue Line, stressing that “any attack on peacekeepers is unacceptable.”

Audio credit: Nancy Sarkis, UN News

Peacekeepers warn of escalating violations along the Blue Line

• Gaza: UN chief welcomes Security Council resolution to end conflict
• WFP prioritizes feeding 110 million of the hungriest in 2026 as global hunger deepens 
• Lebanon: ongoing Israeli Blue Line violations prevent peace

Audio credit: Daniel Johson, UN News

UN News Today 18 November 2025 - Gaza, global hunger, Blue Line violations

The rapid rise of AI in health care has plenty of upsides including faster diagnosis but there are also potentially serious downsides too, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. 
The agency noted that millions of health workers and patients already benefit from the self-learning technology. But across Europe, only four countries have a national strategy on AI use in medical settings, with guidelines on data privacy, legal guardrails and measures to boost AI accessibility for all.
Here's WHO's Bhanu Bhatnagar to tell us more about the key issues.


AI in health care-upsides and downsides-WHO-BhanuBhatnagar

Communities across Ukraine are reeling from another night of deadly airstrikes by Russia into Wednesday which has killed at least 25 people and damaged more homes, health centres, places of education and energy infrastructure – just as winter sets in.
The UN’s top aid official in Ukraine is Matthias Schmale.
He’s condemned this new wave of “relentless” attacks, which stretched from Kharkiv in the east to Ternopil and the Ivano-Frankivsk region in the west.
Here’s Mr. Schmale now, talking to UN News: "Today, the first snow was reported in Kharkiv, so millions are put at risk as a result of the energy destruction. As usual, NGOs were on the scene quickly. They and the Red Cross distributed emergency shelter kits and other emergency aid.  All of this violates international humanitarian law. These attacks have to stop.” 
At least one dozen children were among those wounded, according to the authorities. 
“Their suffering is unconscionable,” Mr. Schmale said in a statement issued by UN aid coordination office, OCHA.


UN condemns latest deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine - Matthias Schmale

Catch up on information you might have missed during the week.

This week’s programme includes:

- Farmers affected by recent heavy rainfall and flooding are urged to report their losses to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security.
- Government releases its mid-year fiscal update for April to September 2025.
- Check out job vacancies.
- Boat operators reminded to complete the grandfathering-in process.
- The Barbados Audit Office is celebrating 170 years next month.

To download a copy of ICYMI November 20-26, 2025, go to https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/download/in-case-you-missed-it-november-20-26-2025/


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT NOVEMBER 20 - 26 (2025)

The situation for people displaced multiple times across Gaza is still desperate despite the fragile ceasefire, which came into effect more than one month ago, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
Heavy rains at the weekend flooded thousands of tents and led one mother to say that she would rather have been bombed in her home with her children than endure the "death of dignity" that they have experienced in recent days.
From Gaza, here's an audio update from UNICEF's Tess Ingram:
"Even though it hasn't rained for a few days here in the Gaza Strip, families are continuing to struggle from the impact of the rains that occurred over the weekend, which were very sudden and heavy rains, and of course the ongoing drop in temperatures here as winter sets in. 
There's an interagency assessment that about 18,000 households were affected across more than 100 sites by those rains, but this is likely an underestimate as many more families will have been affected in areas that we haven't been able to assess or to lesser degrees. 
We know that people in low-lying areas and obviously in the displacement camps, in makeshift shelters and in tents, the most vulnerable to the flooding. This is particularly acute because if you think about the current division of the Gaza Strip with the Israeli forces occupying more than half of the territory, the area that people are allowed to remain in, that isn't occupied, runs along the coast. And so it is the most flood prone and it's also very crowded. What this does is present serious risks in terms of lack of drainage, of sewerage flowing from improvised latrines into communities. 
I met with a mother today, Wafa, who has a mother of five. And she was in tears as she described the weekend to me as among the worst days of her experience of the past two years of this conflict. She said there were times that she wished that she was in the house in her family home with the children when it was bombed so that she didn't have to endure the, she said, death of dignity that they have experienced in recent days. 
Wafa described the family having lunch in their makeshift shelter, which is made of improvised pieces of blankets that have been strung up over poles in a sandy displacement site in Deir arbala. They were eating lunch when the rains came and it started slowly. They moved away from the hole in the roof of their shelter But then it became heavier and began to soak all of their belongings and flood the site. She said that she took her youngest child away to somewhere where they would be safe and cared for by other family members. 
And then she, her husband and her other children got to work trying to save their belongings and push the floodwaters away from their site. Ultimately, though, she said they weren't able to. And so they left the site, took refuge with other family members for three days and came back to find their possessions really badly damaged. Today, a lot of what they had was still waterlogged and stained with dirt and watermarks from the flood water. She said that she's concerned about diseases. Her children are constantly sick with chest infections, colds and coughs. Even, she said, during the summer they didn't go away because there just isn't the adequate medicine to treat them or nutrients to help her children fight the illnesses through their own immunity." 


'Death of dignity' in Gaza: UNICEF's Tess Ingram

• Gaza: ‘death of dignity’ for displaced Palestinians, warns UNICEF
• Ukraine reeling from another night of deadly Russian airstrikes
• WHO: AI can transform health care - but legal safeguards are needed

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 19 November 2025 - Gaza, Ukraine, AI and health care

During his visit to Barcarena in the Amazon basin – a UN-recognized Resilience Hub – the UN’s disaster risk reduction chief, Kamal Kishore, has been seeing climate resilience first hand; not just through infrastructure, but through imagination, education, and community-driven action. 

The top official is at COP30 in Belém and told UN News that from flood and heat-resilient schools – to empowered children shaping their own future – Barcarena demonstrates how local leadership can inspire global transformation.

Speaking to Felipe de Carvalho who’s also on the ground there, he praised the local school as “a guiding light” for climate adaptation, one he hopes to see replicated “at least 100,000” times worldwide. 

Audio credit: Felipe de Carvalho, UN News


A guiding light in the Amazon: Barcarena’s school proves model of climate resilience

• Ukraine: Spike in Russian attacks highlights need to extend refugee protections, says UNHCR
• WHO: European health sector fails nearly one in three survivors of gender-based violence 
• Youth Activists Summit celebrates hope over hate and ‘humanity over hostility’  

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 20 November 2025 - Ukraine, gender-based violence, youth activism

• Gaza: Two children killed per day since ceasefire, says UNICEF 
• Business must align with human rights standards, insists UN’s Volker Türk
• In Ukraine, not a day goes by without civilians coming under attack: OCHA

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 21 November 2025 - Gaza, human rights, Ukraine

The Barbados Government Information Service has been established since 1958 as the Barbados Government's public relations and information arm.   This dynamic channel profiles Barbadian people, places and programmes which make up this Caribbean island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.  We hope you enjoy and feel free to comment.  We want to hear from you.