UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (IPS) - Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly developing and leaving its mark across the globe. Yet the implementation of AI risks widening the gap between the Global North and South.

The Security Council on Monday renewed the mandate of the UN mission in Yemen’s key port city of Hudaydah, as regional tensions spike and international concern mounts over recent Houthi rebel attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Escalating violence, displacement and heavy rains are deepening the needs of civilians caught in the war in Sudan, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Monday.

Amid runaway gang violence and crumbling state authority, the Security Council on Monday unanimously extended the mandate of the UN’s political mission in Haiti until the end of the year, amid escalating gang violence, political paralysis and a deepening humanitarian crisis threatening the country’s collapse.

Clashes on Sunday between Sunni Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militia have reportedly left at least 30 dead in Syria’s predominantly-Druze city of Sweida.

Global life expectancy increased by an astonishing five years between 2000 and 2019. And then since the COVID-19 pandemic, it slid backwards by almost two. More than 110 million children have entered school since 2015 – but by 2023, 272 million children still had no access to the classroom.

The head of UN child rights agency UNICEF has called for Israel to review its rules of engagement in Gaza after seven children were killed while waiting for water at a distribution point.

A breakthrough HIV drug that only needs to be injected twice a year to offer near-total protection from the virus and developing AIDS should be made available “immediately” at pharmacies, clinics and via online consultations, the UN health agency said on Monday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium / MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, July 14 (IPS) - Donald Trump’s bullying tactics ahead of NATO’s annual summit, held in The Hague in June, worked spectacularly. By threatening to redefine NATO’s article 5 – the collective defence provision that has anchored western security since 1949 – Trump won commitments from NATO allies to almost triple their defence spending to five per cent of GDP by 2035. European defence budgets will balloon from around US$500 billion to over US$1 trillion annually, essentially matching US spending levels.

NEW YORK, July 14 (IPS) - On the first International Day of Hope, we are all responsible to #KeepHopeAlive for the children impacted by the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. Perhaps the strongest responsibilities lie with those entrusted to lead the world and make the right moral and legal choices. This is especially so today, when we have led the world into an abyss of excruciating pain for nearly a quarter of a billion innocent children now suffering brutal conflicts and violence, forced displacement and punishing climate disasters – without quality education.