LISBON, July 9 (IPS) - Just five years on from the Covid-19 pandemic, another animal-borne disease is mutating and spreading across borders and species.Avian influenza has already resulted in the loss of more than 630 million birds in the last 20 years. And new figures from the inaugural State of the World’s Animal Health report find that the number of reported outbreaks in mammals, including cattle, sheep and cats, doubled last year compared to 2023.

  CIVICUS speaks to Cristinel Buzatu, regional legal advisor for Central and Eastern Europe at Greenpeace, about how Romania’s state gas company is weaponising the courts to silence environmental opposition.

ULAANBAATAR, July 9 (IPS) - Youth activist Gereltuya Bayanmukh still reflects on the events in her formative years that inspired her to become a climate activist. When she was a child, she would visit her grandparents in a village 20 km to the south of the border between Russia and Mongolia.

SAN FRANCISCO, USA, July 9 (IPS) - Whatever the outcomes of Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House on Monday and the latest scenario for a ceasefire in Gaza, a bilateral policy of genocide has united the Israeli and U.S. governments in a pact of literally breath-taking cruelty.

With Libya once again teetering on the brink of violence, the United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for calm amid rising military tensions in and around the capital, Tripoli.

As scores of people – including medical staff and their families – have reportedly been killed in the past week, UN health partners in Gaza continue to provide emergency care despite very limited resources.

The deadly flash floods in central Texas that claimed more than 100 lives over the July Fourth weekend in the United States have underscored the devastating power of this fast-onset hazard – and the critical challenge of ensuring early warnings reach vulnerable populations, even in the dead of night.

At Hanna Honcharenko’s bakery in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine, the scent of freshly baked bread represents a slice of home for many. The business, born out of hardship, is proof that with trust and support it is possible start again following the loss brought on by war.

Yemen continues to face a dire humanitarian crisis, driven by acute hunger, economic collapse, and regional instability, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON DC, July 8 (IPS) - The World Bank’s private sector arm has raised the bar — and others may follow. On April 15, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) became the first development finance institution to adopt a formal remedy policy, publishing its Remedial Action Framework (RAF) to address environmental and social harm caused by IFC-supported investment projects.