News headlines in May 2026, page 4

Around 30,000 people have had to flee their homes in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas following a new wave of violent attacks and atrocities perpetrated by armed gangs over the past ten days.

Facing a fast-moving Ebola outbreak caused by a rare strain of the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) is relying on a rapid, community-centred response to halt transmission in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, a senior official has told UN News.

Before heading to strike sites in war-torn Lebanon, rescue workers and paramedics often say goodbye to one another – a ritual captured in widely shared videos reflecting the growing dangers faced by aid workers since hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel erupted on 2 March.

The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday underscored the need to effectively re-open the Strait of Hormuz and expand UN Security Council membership to curb the impunity of veto-wielding “superpowers”.

The Security Council meets today in New York for its annual open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict amid mounting concern over rising civilian casualties, attacks on humanitarian workers and widespread destruction of homes and critical infrastructure in wars around the world. Senior UN and Red Cross officials will brief members, calling for stronger respect for international humanitarian law.

The deadly Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda does not represent a global pandemic emergency, although the risk is high at a regional and national level, the UN health agency chief said on Wednesday.

Where does real power reside in the UN development system? A new policy brief from Cepei, a Colombian development policy institute, and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), presented earlier in May, poses this deceptively simple question. The answer matters because institutions that cannot govern fairly or transparently struggle to sustain legitimacy, and legitimacy is essential for peace.

ROME, May 19 (IPS) - For thousands of years, humans have kept bees. Beekeeping is a key agricultural activity, yet its full potential remains largely unrealized. Beekeeping produces far more than honey and generates far more income than many have chosen to acknowledge.

KABUL, May 19 (IPS) - Nooria is a young girl who, because of poverty and the absence of a man in her family, had to dress in boys’ clothes so she could work and feed her family. It was not a choice, it was survival. But she was eventually caught by the Taliban.

PORTLAND, USA, May 19 (IPS) - With death being an inevitable outcome, a fundamental question that crosses the minds of practically everyone is: “How am I going to die?”