NEW YORK, Jul 14 (IPS) - We all know and agree that patience is a virtue. It is indeed. With one exception.

In the face of a child’s suffering, impatience is the highest virtue. Or as we say in the spirit of Education Cannot Wait: “We must be unapologetically impatient” in our collective goal to reach 224 million crisis-affected children and adolescents with quality education.

AMSTERDAM, Jul 14 (IPS) - The dangerous state of global climate has reached a new low as a World Metrological Organisation (WMO) analysis reveals. It confirms a known obvious: human activities continue to worsen conditions that have changed our planet’s climate.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Friday said it was very concerned over reports of police in Kenya using excessive force to quell protests this week which have left dozens dead and injured.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer research agency on Friday classified the commonly used artificial sweetener aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, although another UN committee reaffirmed that there was a safe daily level of consumption.

The international community must act now to protect future generations from the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence, the UN’s advocate on the issue, Pramila Patten, told the Security Council on Friday.

Scorching temperatures are engulfing large parts of the Northern hemisphere, while devastating floods triggered by relentless rainfall have disrupted lives and livelihoods, underscoring the urgent need for more climate action, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.

During the first half of the year, 289 boys and girls died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, or double the number compared to the same period in 2022, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Friday.

BULAWAYO, Jul 13 (IPS) - Zimbabwe holds general elections next month amid growing human rights and press freedom concerns in what analysts say could mar conditions for undisputed poll results.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Jul 13 (IPS) - On the night of 17 July 1998, the outcome of the Diplomatic Conference convened to create the International Criminal Court was still uncertain. Hundreds of state representatives and civil society organizations assembled in the FAO headquarters in Rome, holding their breath in anticipation.

Unity on the Security Council in the face of missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is essential to ease tensions across the whole Korean Peninsula, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for political and peacebuilding affairs for the region said on Thursday.