News headlines in June 2026

APEX, North Carolina / SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 30 (IPS) - With progress stalled on many issues, this year’s June talks in Bonn—which are supposed to smooth the way towards COP 31 in Antalya at year’s end—were widely judged a failure. What happened? And what does it mean for Antalya?

ROME, June 30 (IPS) - Farmers today are producing food under pressures that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Input costs are rising and supply chains are unreliable. Water is scarcer. Weather is less predictable. And for a growing number of farmers — in Sudan, in Ukraine, in Myanmar, in Gaza — the challenge is producing food at all, in the middle of active conflict. These are not marginal conditions. They describe the reality facing hundreds of millions of people who grow the food the world depends on.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 30 (IPS) - Usually, the fiesta to celebrate St Antony at the church with the same name in Crown Mines, Johannesburg, is a lively affair. The church is usually packed with congregants from the Portuguese community, including recent migrants from Mozambique and Angola.

UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (IPS) - As the United Nations held its first-ever Peacebuilding Week (June 22-26) UN officials and developmental partners gathered at Egypt’s Permanent Mission on June 23 to hold a dialogue on the main question which emerged from the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR): “how can global commitments to peacebuilding translate into tangible results on the ground?”

Five humanitarian workers have been killed after a clearly marked aid convoy was ambushed in Jonglei State, South Sudan.

The deadly Venezuela quakes have deepened hardship for families who already needed support and left others without homes, income or regular access to food.

The UN agency serving 5.9 million Palestine refugees, UNRWA, continues to strive to deliver on its mandate while facing an unprecedented $100 million budget shortfall, a gap it hopes to narrow during Tuesday’s pledging conference at UN Headquarters.

Re-opening the Strait of Hormuz would bring vital relief for many economies, but developing countries will continue to grapple with increased food and fuel costs, according to a new UN report released on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published new guidance to help countries confront the rising burden of fungal disease and antifungal resistance - one of the most neglected global health threats, yet still largely absent from national health plans.

Millions of children across the globe are already using artificial intelligence to learn, solve problems and even seek advice about personal worries, while safeguards are failing to keep pace with the technology's rapid adoption.