South Sudan’s dramatic hunger crisis is worsening and millions of people there could miss out on food aid because of the global humanitarian funding crisis, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in the Gaza Strip who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (IPS) - Discriminatory laws and the absence of legal protections impact more than 2.5 billion women and girls worldwide in various ways. Legal reform is paramount to securing gender equality, and the world cannot afford to roll back on decades of progress in women’s rights.

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (IPS) - Electric vehicles contribute to an ongoing environmental and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mining operations cause deforestation, pollution, food insecurity and exploitative labor practices.

  CIVICUS discusses the military use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Gaza with Dima Samaro, a Palestinian lawyer and researcher, and director of Skyline International for Human Rights, a civil society organisation (CSO) that defends digital freedoms and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa. Dima serves on multiple boards focused on civic space and surveillance issues, including Innovation for Change’s MENA Hub, the Surveillance in the Majority World Network and the VUKA! Solidarity Coalition, and volunteers with Resilience Pathways to help Palestinian CSOs counter Israeli efforts to restrict civic space and manipulate public narratives.

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 (IPS) - “Multilateralism is not an option but a necessity as we build back a better world with more equality and resilience and a more sustainable world.”

Digital innovation and technology remain underfunded and underdeveloped across Africa, according to a report on Africa’s development which was discussed at the General Assembly on Monday.

From the Himalayas to rural Texas, deadly floods this month have killed hundreds and exposed dangerous gaps in early warning systems, the UN’s weather agency warned, linking the devastation to rapid urbanization, land-use change and a warming climate that traps more moisture in the atmosphere.

The hunger crisis in Gaza has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row, a senior official with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday.

As tensions between Houthi rebels in Yemen and Israel escalate, the UN Secretary-General is “deeply concerned” about the renewed airstrikes on Hudaydah Port conducted by Israel this Monday, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York.