UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (IPS) - As discussions on the restructuring of the United Nations — including a possible merger of UN agencies and staff lay-offs system-wide — continue at the highest levels of the Secretariat, the Staff Union (UNSU) is demanding an active presence in the ongoing talks.

A proposed resolution, which is expected to be adopted at the UNSU general meeting on May 14, is very specific in its demands.

NEW YORK, May 12 (IPS) - Marcos Neto is UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. From environmental degradation to biodiversity loss and mounting waste, we are facing the dire consequences of a reckless economic model that extracts, consumes, and discards. But there is an urgent alternative—one that is not just possible, but essential.

Every summer in Ma’rib, Yemen, a place marked by loss and uncertainty, a football tournament offers a rare kind of hope. For hundreds of displaced youth living across more than a dozen sites, it’s a chance to unite, to belong, and to dream.

Following pronouncements of an end to hostilities between the neighbouring nuclear powers, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said that the organisation stands ready to support efforts aimed at promoting peace and stability in the region.

A cycling network expanded from 70 kilometres to over 400 kilometres in Fortaleza, Brazil. A project to create a bike lane in every street of Paris. And the longest pedestrian and cycle tunnel in the world, in the Norwegian coastal city of Bergen.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 09 (IPS) - Migren Matanga grew up shying away from small and traditional grains in Rushinga, in northern Zimbabwe.

BRUSSELS, Belgium / MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, May 09 (IPS) - The world’s population is ageing. Global life expectancy has leapt to 73.3 years, up from under 65 in 1995. Around the world, there are now 1.1 billion people aged 60-plus, expected to rise to 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2.1 billion by 2050.

This demographic shift is a triumph, reflecting public health successes, medical advances and better nutrition. But it brings human rights challenges.

PARIS / BRUSSELS, May 09 (IPS) - If one so wished, it would be entirely possible to spend a lifetime travelling from one international environmental conference to the next, without ever returning home. But the relentless pace of these meetings does not always translate into equally rapid action.

A looming global copper shortage could stall the world’s transition to clean energy and digital technologies unless smarter trade and investment strategies are adopted, the UN’s trade and development body, UNCTAD, has warned.

UN humanitarian teams have completed a mission to the Sudanese town of Tawila to provide life-saving assistance for civilians recently displaced by intensifying violence in North Darfur state.