News headlines in 2025, page 55

BANGKOK, November 1 (IPS) - It is a bleak global moment—with civil society actors battling assassinations, imprisonment, fabricated charges, and funding cuts to pro-democracy movements in a world gripped by inequality, climate chaos, and rising authoritarianism. Yet, the mood at Bangkok’s Thammasat University was anything but defeated.

The world of work is undergoing rapid and destabilising change, with widening inequality and job insecurity leaving millions without stable livelihoods or basic protections.

Journalists risk their lives every day to bring facts to light, yet most attacks against them go unpunished.

After two years of war that kept them out of classrooms, Gaza’s children are finally returning to the classroom, surrounded by devastation – but determined to learn.

MOGADISHU / ROME, October 31 (IPS) - Food has always been political. It decides whether families thrive or fall into poverty, whether young people see a future of opportunity or despair, whether communities feel included or pushed aside. Food is also a basic human right – one recognized in international law but too often unrealized in practice. Guaranteeing that right requires viewing food not as a form of emergency relief, but as the cornerstone of sustainable social development.

BULAWAYO & BANGKOK, October 31 (IPS) - From the streets of Bangkok to power corridors in Washington, the civil society space for dissent is fast shrinking. Authoritarian regimes are silencing opposition but indirectly fueling corruption and widening inequality, according to a leading global civil society alliance.

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 (IPS) - The United States, the largest single contributor to the UN budget, is using its financial clout to threaten the United Nations by cutting off funds and withdrawing from several UN agencies. In an interview with Breitbart News U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mike Waltz said last week “a quarter of everything the UN does, the United States pays for”.

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 (IPS) - The lingering after-effects of nuclear tests by the world’s nuclear powers have left a devastating impact on hundreds and thousands of victims world-wide.

Twenty-five years ago, the international community agreed a new approach to women’s inclusion in peace processes in what came to be known as the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), outlined in the landmark Security Council resolution 1325.

The UN is calling for restraint in Tanzania, amid deadly protests following the 29 October general election, as the country remains under curfew and faces widespread internet restrictions.