GIANYAR, Bali, May 14 (IPS) - It was Christmas Eve last year when visitors across several tourism hotspots in Bali woke up to a ghastly scene they hadn’t expected: layers of cans, bags, bottles, and driftwood covering their favorite sandy beaches, washed up by hours of rain and high tide. So bad was the situation that from Kuta to Legian and Seminyak to Jimbaran—none of the island’s picturesque beaches was clean enough to attract the visitors for a swim.

May 14 (IPS) - CIVICUS discusses Romania’s presidential election with Anda Serban, Executive Director of Resource Center for Public Participation (CERE), a civil society organisation (CSO) that focuses on public participation and transparency in decision-making processes.

BALTIMORE, Maryland, May 14 (IPS) - Here’s a question: Over the past 40 years, what natural disaster has affected more people around the globe than any other?

Long overlooked as a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, the shipping industry is now at the forefront of a unique display of international cooperation. The shift signals that even the world’s largest transport sector can be steered toward climate accountability.

Children in many of the world’s wealthiest countries saw marked declines in their academic performance, mental wellbeing, and physical health as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday.

In a remote village clinic in the Bamyan Province in Afghanistan last week, a group of teenage girls were given potentially life-saving reproductive health advice, excited by the small kit of menstrual supplies they had been given.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has once again called for a global ban on lethal autonomous weapon systems – machines capable of taking human lives without human oversight – describing them as “politically unacceptable” and “morally repugnant.”

The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, underlined the need to protect civilians and healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip in a renewed appeal on Wednesday.

More than 130 countries and international partners threw their weight behind UN peacekeeping at a high-level ministerial summit in Berlin on Wednesday, pledging military, tech and political support.

The ceasefire between the United States and Houthi rebels in Yemen provides an opportunity to revitalize the peace process in the Middle Eastern country, the UN Security Council heard on Wednesday.