Somalia, Syria, Iran

Today's three stories you should know

Somalia

Children will go hungry in Somalia due to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran disrupting aid supplies and driving fuel costs higher, according to the U.N. children’s agency. UNICEF says it has $15.7 million worth of aid, including food and vaccines, in transit or ready for delivery to Somalia but that its arrival is now uncertain. Speaking to AP at a refugee camp in the south of the country, UNICEF’s executive director Catherine Russell said the Iran war has been “a shock to the system” for aid to Somalia, where nearly 6.5 million people face severe hunger. Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. said today that his government would “facilitate and expedite” the passage of humanitarian aid and agricultural supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, which it has closed to commercial traffic.

More from AP here.

Syria

More than 1,700 people were killed, the overwhelming majority from the Druze religious minority, during a week of violence in Syria in July 2025, a new U.N. report said, urging the country’s government to investigate senior security officials. Fighting erupted in the southern governorate of Suweida, initially between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes, before government-aligned forces joined on the side of the Bedouins. Extrajudicial executions followed and more than 200,000 people fled their homes in the biggest challenge President Ahmed al-Sharaa had faced since coming to power promising to unite Syria’s factions after almost 14 years of civil war. The foreign ministry said in a statement that it was treating the report “with the utmost seriousness” and was committed to “holding all those involved in these violations accountable without exception.”

More from Reuters here.

Iran

Iran’s men’s football team wore black armbands and held tiny schoolbags ahead of a match in Turkey, in what an official said was a protest over the killing of 165 girls in a strike on a school on the first day of the Iran war. The bombing, widely believed to have been carried out by the U.S., prompted revulsion in Iran and devastated the small town of Minab. The players lined up ahead of their friendly game with Nigeria clutching pink and purple bags with ribbons tied to them. “The players are holding the school bags close to their heart in remembrance of the 165 girls the Americans killed in an Iranian school,” a spokesperson said. U.S. military investigators believe their forces were responsible but have dragged their heels on completing a probe into the attack, prompting the U.N. to urge them today to bring it to a conclusion and publish the results as soon as possible.

More from the Guardian here.