News headlines in April 2026

VICTORIA, Seychelles, April 8 (IPS) - We live in a century of extraordinary achievement.Humanity has split the atom, mapped the genome, and sent astronauts to the Moon, with plans now underway to reach Mars. Our knowledge has expanded, our tools have become more powerful, and our capacity to shape the world around us exceeds anything previous generations could have imagined. We communicate instantaneously across continents, diagnose diseases earlier, monitor climate patterns in real time, and design artificial intelligences that can aid in everything from medicine to climate modelling.

GARISSA, Kenya , April 8 (IPS) - In 2006, Amina Saida was only two years old when her parents moved to the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia.

The United Nations has strongly condemned airstrikes by the Israeli military across Lebanon on Wednesday which have resulted in significant casualties and destruction.

At least 326 humanitarians were killed in the line of duty across 21 countries during 2025, bringing the total killed over three years to over 1,010. The International Red Cross warned the Security Council on Wednesday that “we are losing our humanity in war.”

After nearly 40 days of intense hostilities across the Middle East – marked by rising civilian casualties and widespread damage to critical infrastructure – a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran has been announced. While the UN Secretary-General has welcomed the move as a step toward a broader peace, reports of continued Israeli strikes and mass casualties across Lebanon underscore the fragility of the situation. Stay with us for live updates. App users can follow coverage here.

APEX, North Carolina / SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 8 (IPS) - Let the race begin! April 1st was the deadline for candidates to be nominated for Secretary-General. Was it a coincidence that the deadline was April Fool’s Day? Judging by the quality of the official candidates, we suspect so.

PORTLAND, USA, April 7 (IPS) - As stated in Hamlet, “Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.” Although death is inevitable for all living beings, human mortality, which is expected to reach approximately 64 million individual deaths worldwide in 2026, is not evenly distributed across populations.

TOKYO, Japan, April 7 (IPS) - As tensions surrounding Iran deepen and uncertainty spreads across global energy markets, Japan is once again confronting a structural weakness: its heavy dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

MOROGORO, Tanzania , April 7 (IPS) - At Mazimbu village, not far from Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Stephano Jaka still remembers the night he trapped and killed a rat that had been feasting on his maize cobs – stored in a meticulously woven basket designed to protect grains from rodents.

SYDNEY, April 7 (IPS) - Bangladesh is scheduled to graduate from the least developed country (LDC) status in November this year after more than half a century. Bangladesh joined the UN club of LDCs in 1975 and consistently met all three graduation criteria – per capita Gross National Income (GNI), human asset and economic vulnerability – since 2018.