The first jolt threw Dr. Abdul Mateen Sahak out of bed. The second sent him to his phone. It was right before midnight, last Sunday, and the steep, mountainous valleys of eastern Afghanistan had just been hit by a powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake, closely followed by the first of many aftershocks.

UNITED NATIONS, September 5 (IPS) - United Nations aid organizations are rallying after a series of earthquakes and powerful aftershocks wreaked unprecedented havoc across eastern Afghanistan—particularly in the mountainous provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar.

  CIVICUS discusses recent protests in Angola with Florindo Chivucute, founder and executive director of Friends of Angola, a US-based civil society organisation established in 2014 that works to promote democracy, human rights and good governance in Angola.

NEW DELHI, September 5 (IPS) - In the early part of this year, two deaths in Kerala garnered major media attention. A farmer in Wayanad and a female plantation worker in Idukki were killed in two separate events, within a matter of a few days, by wild elephants.Arikomban, another wild elephant, has become a media favorite recently due to his brushes with human settlements near his habitat. Named so because of his love for ari (rice), the elephant had been relocated from Kerala to Tamil Nadu in 2023 following constant protests from people who also claimed him to be ‘life-threatening.’ Kerala’s news outlets widely covered Arikomban’s relocation.

ROME, September 5 (IPS) - Despite absorbing a quarter of climate-related losses and having the potential to reduce one-third of global emissions, agrifood systems receive less than 8% of climate finance. This imbalance threatens progress in addressing global climate challenges. If we’re serious about solutions, we need to start where the impact—and the promise—is greatest: investing in the systems that feed the world.

GENEVA, September 5 (IPS) - The debacle that was the latest round of negotiations for a global treaty on plastics (including in the marine environment); known as “INC 5.2” has already been written about at length by many colleagues on all sides of the issues. Despite all the very informative posts, articles, and other analyses, I believe I have several key observations to make, particularly about the process to-date.

Standing behind the United Nations rostrum on the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, Oemwa Johnson, one of the younger members in the room, called on the General Assembly to heed a growing global call for nuclear justice.

Sanctions imposed by the United States on three prominent and well-respected Palestinian human rights groups are “completely unacceptable and should be withdrawn”, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday.

The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, has released $10 million in response to the urgent need for food, water, shelter and other lifesaving provisions following this week’s devastating earthquakes and aftershocks in Afghanistan.

Speaking to journalists in the capital of Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Friday, UN chief António Guterres rounded off the first ever visit to the Pacific nation by a sitting Secretary-General, paying tribute to the country’s unbroken 50-year run as a multilingual democracy – which is now beset by major economic and environmental challenges.