News headlines in February 2026

DELHI, February 20 (IPS) - Pyari Hessa, 26, balances long shifts as a loco traffic controller at a steel company in Jamshedpur with evening football practice on the same turf where professionals train.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, February 19 (IPS) - Africa is home to approximately 160 million adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 (according to 2022 data by the United Nations Population Division). They embody the energy, creativity, and potential of the continent. It is undeniable that The Africa We Want, as envisioned in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, will not be realized without the full participation of this group which represents a key component of the continent’s current and future workforce.

BRATISLAVA, February 19 (IPS) - Drug reform campaigners have called for an overhaul of global drug controls amid an increasingly complex and deadly drug situation in the world and as hardline anti-drug approaches are increasingly being used as cover for repression of civil society and human rights defenders.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, February 19 (IPS) - It is an indictment on the global food system that, despite having some of the richest and most endowed natural resources in the world and a burgeoning youth population, West Africa spends more than $2 billion a year importing aquatic foods to feed its people, almost half of which is spent by Côte d’Ivoire alone.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for the immediate release of all children detained during the recent public unrest in Iran, expressing deep concern that minors arrested in connection with the protests remain behind bars.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up its emergency response in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, where escalating conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and pushed hunger to critical levels.

Nearly three years into Sudan’s war, violence is intensifying, famine conditions are looming in parts of the country, and civilians remain trapped between shifting front lines, senior UN political and humanitarian officials told the Security Council on Thursday, warning that the risk of further mass atrocities remains alarmingly high.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has warned that without urgent guardrails, AI risks deepening inequality, amplifying bias and fuelling real-world harm.

The UN Security Council meets this morning to discuss Sudan as the war nears its third year and fighting intensifying across multiple regions and civilians facing deepening humanitarian catastrophe. Senior UN political and humanitarian officials are expected to brief ministers on a conflict marked by shifting front lines, advanced weaponry and widespread displacement. The meeting comes amid fresh warnings that atrocities in Darfur, including acts bearing the “hallmarks of genocide” in El-Fasher, signal a dangerous escalation. Follow the live coverage below, UN News App users click here.

Increased Israeli attacks and the forced transfer of Palestinians have sparked concern over ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report issued on Thursday.