Addressing the opening of an international forum in Hanoi on partnerships for green growth, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed on Wednesday emphasized the need for accelerated action to meet global climate and development goals.

South Sudan stands at a dangerous crossroads as rising political tensions threaten to derail a fragile peace deal, amid growing fears of renewed conflict in the world’s youngest nation, already buckling under a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Escalating violence and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in and around El Fasher in Sudan continue to be of grave concern, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The world economy is on a recessionary trajectory as global growth is expected to slow to 2.3 per cent this year due to escalating trade tensions and uncertainty, the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD, said in a new report published on Wednesday.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning in Geneva, countries finalized a draft global agreement aimed at improving how the world prepares for and responds to pandemics, marking a historic step that will be submitted to the World Health Assembly in May for adoption.

BALTIMORE, Maryland, Apr 16 (IPS) - Last year, 343 million people were experiencing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). That’s 10 percent higher than in 2023.

PORTLAND, USA, Apr 15 (IPS) - As the world’s population of 8.2 billion people increases in size and becomes older due to demographic ageing, the number of people experiencing the long goodbye, or dementia, is rapidly rising.

LONDON, Apr 15 (IPS) - The recent US court case that ordered three Greenpeace organisations to pay damages of over US$660 million to an oil and gas company was a stunning blow against civil society’s efforts to stop runaway climate change and environmental degradation. The verdict, following a trial independent witnesses assessed to be grossly unfair, came in reaction to Indigenous-led anti-pipeline protests. It’s vital for any prospects of tackling the climate crisis that Greenpeace’s appeal succeeds, because without civil society pressure, there’s simply no hope of governments and corporations taking the action required.

NEW YORK, Apr 15 (IPS) - April marks Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month, a time to reflect on the history, causes and victims of past genocides and to mobilize the necessary resolve to confront risks facing populations around the world today who face the threat of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes not for anything they have done, but for who they are.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 15 (IPS) - US President Donald Trump has again seized global attention by arbitrarily imposing sweeping tariffs on the rest of the world. He reminds us America is still boss, claiming to ‘make America great again’ (MAGA) by ensuring ‘America first’ at everyone else’s expense.