As humanitarian needs spiral across the world, political will and funding are required to address war, climate change and other drivers, the UN relief chief said on Monday. 

The UN chief on Sunday strongly condemned the launch of yet another ballistic missile of intercontinental range by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as news reports said two more missiles had been launched on Monday.

In Trinidad and Tobago, some performers have been tapping into traditional art forms ahead of the carnival on February 20-21 to encourage their communities to continue following COVID-19 health protocols as the country lifts restrictions on public gatherings.

Some 1.8 billion people on the planet are threatened by flood risks, the United Nations General Assembly President warned on Saturday, at a water management event in Tokyo, Japan.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his support for an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa on Saturday, in remarks delivered to the African Union Summit, which is being held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

GENEVA & NAIROBI, Feb 17 (IPS) - From southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya and Somalia, the most severe drought in the last 40 years is unfolding. It is simply too hot to go to school on an empty stomach, and close to 3 million children are out of school, with an additional 4 million at risk of dropping out entirely across the Horn of Africa.

Feb 17 (IPS) - An African proverb notes that “when two elephants fight, it is the grass underneath that suffers”. Many states in the global south are, therefore, seeking to avoid getting caught in the middle of any future battles between the US and China. Instead, they are calling for a renewal of the concept of non-alignment. This was an approach employed in the 1950s by newly independent countries to balance between the two ideological power blocs of east and west during the era of the Cold War 

MADRID, Feb 17 (IPS) - In this world of wars, massive weapons production, sales and use; of sharpening inequalities and deadly climate emergencies, hate speech and its inhumane impact, is being amplified at ‘unprecedented scale’ by new technologies.

BRIGHTON, UK, Feb 17 (IPS) - Since researching the experiences of gender discrimination against women in poverty who belong to religious minorities, many fellow feminists have turned their back on me.

Almost a year into the war in Ukraine, some communities are having to cope with the total destruction of their way of life and the towns where they used to live; that’s according to a humanitarian worker for the UN Migration Agency, IOM.