BRATISLAVA, Nov 10 (IPS) - Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the conflict’s potential to escalate to the use of nuclear weapons has been highlighted by political analysts and military experts alike.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners are continuing to reach growing numbers of people impacted by the war on the ground with life-saving assistance, a UN spokesperson told journalists on Thursday.

Two-thirds of Afghans are going hungry, with girls' education subject to “random edicts” of the Taliban, while crime and terrorism are thriving once more buoyed by a large spike in opium production, warned the President of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

The growth of terrorism is a major threat to international peace and security, currently felt most keenly in Africa, the deputy UN chief told the Security Council on Thursday.  

A UN-appointed independent human rights expert on Thursday, urged States to lift unilateral sanctions against Syria, warning that they are perpetuating and exacerbating the destruction and trauma suffered by ordinary citizens since the brutal war began there in 2011. 

Armed with banners, picket signs, megaphones, and especially with heart-wrenching testimonies backed by scientific and economic facts, the youth took over the halls of COP27 on Thursday to demand that negotiators address the issue of loss and damage.

CAPETOWN, South Africa, Nov 09 (IPS) - Imagine a world where the people hit hardest by climate crisis have a say in how to stop it. Imagine that youth, Indigenous Peoples, women, and others most affected by global warming have the resources to implement their own climate solutions. Solutions that are highly effective because they meet local needs, suit the local context, and create sustainable economic opportunities for local people. This world would be one where people have a much better chance of surviving, and even thriving, despite the massive upheavals of the climate crisis.

BARCELONA, Nov 09 (IPS) - The recent incidents of sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the depths of the Baltic Sea, the authorship of which still raises doubts today, have reminded us that some of the key infrastructures that condition geopolitics, and our daily lives, are largely located deep under the sea.

NEW YORK, Nov 09 (IPS) - In this year’s COP 27 two-weeklong summit in Egypt, which concludes November 18, a rough count indicates there will be 40 different sessions organised by, for, and about, religious engagements in/on climate change and related issues. This is likely the highest number of events by and around religious actors, organised at a COP event.

NEW YORK, Nov 09 (IPS) - The electoral defeat of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro is a triumph for everyone who is concerned about the peril of climate change. Bolsonaro’s well-deserved defeat could help save the Amazon rainforest, which has been ravaged under his criminal rule, and the process of reversing the looming climate change catastrophe can begin