BRUSSELS, Belgium, November 7 (IPS) - President Prabowo Subianto welcomed his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil to Jakarta recently to strengthen ties between the fast-growing economies.

UNITED NATIONS, November 7 (IPS) - “Has the world given up fighting climate change?” was a rhetorical question posed recently by the New York Times, perhaps with a degree of sarcasm. It might look that way, says Christiana Figueres, a founding partner of the nongovernmental organization Global Optimism, “as US president Donald Trump blusters about fossil fuel, Bill Gates prioritizes children’s health over climate protection, and oil and gas companies plan decades of higher production.”

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, November 6 (IPS) - The Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, is the name given by the Taliban to their religious police, tasked with enforcing strict Islamist rule on the people of Afghanistan. But for Afghan women, the name evokes only fear and terror, as they bear the harshest consequences of its actions.

BELÉM, Brazil & JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, November 6 (IPS) - Political courage is the biggest obstacle to limiting the rise in global average temperature to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. 

PORTLAND, USA, November 6 (IPS) - Dating websites, mobile apps, social networks, and cell phones offer numerous opportunities for dating, developing relationships, having encounters, and finding partners with more and more people relying on these platforms. However, modern technologies with their scale, speed and easy have also brought about dating challenges for both men and women.

UNITED NATIONS, November 6 (IPS) - In recent days, nuclear state leaders have flouted the regulations and norms around nuclear non-proliferation and are flirting more openly with nuclear might in the name of projecting strength.

SRINAGAR, India & BELÉM, November 6 (IPS) - A decade has passed since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, and a United Nations synthesis report released ahead of COP30 in Belém shows that “Parties are bending their combined emission curve further downwards, but still not quickly enough.”

UNITED NATIONS, November 6 (IPS) - In late October, Hurricane Melissa, a powerful Category 5 storm, made landfall in the Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage to civilian infrastructure and a devastating loss of life. Humanitarian agencies have mobilized on the ground to deliver urgent assistance to affected communities facing widespread destruction of homes, mass displacement, fatalities, and severe shortages of essential services, including food, water, medicine, shelter, and electricity.

NAPO, Amazonia, Ecuador / NEW YORK, November 6 (IPS) - As world leaders prepare to gather in Brazil for COP30 next week, they will convene in the heart of the Amazon — a fitting location for what must become a turning point in how the world addresses the intertwined crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees appealed on Thursday for more solutions to address forced displacement in his final address to the General Assembly.