News headlines in April 2026

BRATISLAVA, April 28 (IPS) - “What’s important is to make sure that you can immerse yourself in an environment that is positive for your mental health and wellbeing,” says Olena*.

SYDNEY, April 28 (IPS) - Bangladesh remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Its corruption perception index (CPI) score, 24, is 18 points below the global average score of 42, and 21 points lower than the Asia-Pacific region’s average of 45. One of the main sources of corruption is over-priced aid-funded projects as they lack competitive bidding. Projects funded through Government-to-Government deals drive up costs by more than 400% compared to more transparent alternatives, and around 35% of project costs are lost to corruption and inefficiency.

NEW YORK, April 28 (IPS) - The veil has been lifted—but not the one you think.

Not the veil the West has spent decades weaponizing. The veil now exposed is the one that concealed Western feminism’s selective solidarity—its silence on the women it was never truly fighting for. The “othering” of women from the South West Asian and North African region. In other words: us.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, April 28 (IPS) - As delegates from 191 countries, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, gathered Monday at UN headquarters for a month of diplomacy at the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the stakes could hardly be higher.

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 (IPS) - The race for the next UN Secretary-General has, so far, attracted only four candidates—perhaps with more to come in an unpredictable contest.

But most of the candidates have played it safe – avoiding controversial issues and circumventing the wrath of the US whose veto can demolish the chances of any candidate by a single stroke in the Security Council.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 28 (IPS) - The January 2026 US National Defense Strategy (NDS) departs significantly from those preceding it, including from Trump’s first term. Is it deliberately misleading? Or is actual policy, including war, being driven by other considerations?

Countries are making measurable progress in combatting viral hepatitis, but the disease remains a major global health challenge, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new report published on Tuesday.

The Security Council turns again to the Middle East crisis in New York on Tuesday, with scheduled debate expected to focus on the fragile Gaza ceasefire, a worsening humanitarian crisis there and efforts to advance a US-backed peace plan. UN Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari is set to brief, alongside former UK Prime Minister and member of the US-led Board of Peace Tony Blair. You can follow all the UN's meetings coverage here but follow live and in-depth updates below.

Twenty years after the conflict in Darfur first sparked global outrage, children in the region are once again trapped in a catastrophic cycle of violence, hunger, and displacement – but this time, the world is failing to take notice.

This is the third part of a three-part commentary. In foreign relations, as in immigration, King Don the Con appears to be channeling King John the Bad and often surpassing him.