Tanzanian conservationists are mourning the tragic death of renowned plant expert Aloyce Mwakisoma, who played a critical role in forest restoration and recently helped identify and describe a giant…

Israel announced late on Tuesday that it will limit the flow of aid to Gaza, accusing Hamas of breaching the ceasefire agreement by returning only four of the bodies of deceased hostages so far.

A new report released on Tuesday warns the world is falling behind on its clean energy goals, prompting UN chief António Guterres to call once more for a ramped-up transition to a net zero global economy.

With the end of the year fast approaching, humanitarians are urging donors to step up support for their operations which remain underfunded due to brutal cuts to aid budgets.

The UN’s top envoy for Libya warned on Tuesday that the country’s long-delayed political transition will stay on hold unless rival institutions swiftly resolve differences over election laws and key appointments.

Russian drones hit a “clearly marked” UN convoy on Tuesday which was bringing desperately needed aid to a war-torn frontline town in southern Ukraine.

Countries must scale up investment and care to treat neurological disorders, responsible for over 11 million deaths each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

KABUL, October 14 (IPS) - At the end of September, the Taliban abruptly severed Wi-Fi and fiber-optic internet in Afghanistan for 48 hours without any explanation. The disruption caused consternation and suffering among millions of Afghans, especially those who depend on the internet for education and online commerce.

NAIROBI, October 14 (IPS) - The Gambia’s lead negotiator on mitigation believes that COP30 presents a unique opportunity to rebalance global climate leadership.

Around $70 billion will be needed to reconstruct Gaza and make it safe after two years of war, UN development experts said on Tuesday, while aid agencies reported that far too little aid is getting in to meet the needs of desperate Palestinians.

WASHINGTON DC, October 14 (IPS) - The World Bank and other multilateral development banks recently have begun reconsidering their self-imposed restrictions on financing fossil fuel projects. This change is being prompted in part by the new U.S. administration and is also supported by developing country experts. Yet, the reality remains that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from fossil fuels, and specifically the climate change they induce, can severely undermine multilateral development bank projects and overall developing country growth prospects.

UNITED NATIONS, October 14 (IPS) - New figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) show that displacement has surged significantly in Haiti, deepening existing security and humanitarian crises in a country where nearly 90 percent of the capital is controlled by armed gangs.

ABUJA, Nigeria, October 14 (IPS) - Recent research from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI warns that bias in artificial intelligence remains deeply rooted even in models designed to avoid it and can worsen as models grow. From bias in hiring of men over women for leadership roles, to misclassification of darker-skinned individuals as criminals, the stakes are high.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, October 14 (IPS) - Global South cooperation arrangements must evolve to better respond to pressing contemporary and imminent challenges, rather than risk being irrelevant straitjackets stuck in the past.

UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina Mohammed has acknowledged the Chinese capital’s enduring association with the fight for women’s rights and gender equality, 30 years on from the adoption of the landmark Beijing Declaration, a foundational international treaty.

The UN is stepping up its emergency response in Gaza, releasing $11 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to meet urgent needs before winter – a move that underscores both the expanding humanitarian effort and the funding shortfall threatening to stall it.

As the humanitarian crisis continues to escalate in Haiti, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday that women, children and displaced families are disproportionately affected as malnutrition and hunger rise.

People around the world who are transforming food systems in their local communities are being recognised and supported by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

There is now “real hope” for a ceasefire which would pave the way for a lasting and definitive settlement of the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Huang Xia, told the Security Council on Monday.

The world’s poorest are being squeezed by trade uncertainty, heavy debt burdens and falling investment, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD warned a week before ministers gather in Geneva for its largest meeting in four years.

From 1970 until 2000, the costs of disaster averaged $70-$80 billion. Those mainly preventable costs doubled this century to average $180-$200 billion annually, according to a recent report published by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

Common infections are becoming harder – and sometimes impossible – to treat, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday, as new data show that one in six bacterial infections globally are resistant to standard antibiotics, endangering millions and straining health systems worldwide.

The escalating political crisis in South Sudan is driving renewed armed violence and making the already dire humanitarian and human rights situations there worse, UN investigators said on Monday.

Ramallah, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank, is a bustling urban centre, but it is ringed by barriers and checkpoints which dominate every aspect of life. Speaking at the UN Forum of Mayors in Geneva, Issa Kassis, the mayor of Ramallah, says that the challenges faced by city leaders are amplified by conflict and occupation.