News headlines in July 2026, page 6

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (IPS) - With regional friction between Iran and the Gulf monarchies escalating, Houthi leadership in Yemen has proclaimed a total maritime blockade against all vessels linked to Saudi shipping. While this declaration does not constitute a verified military obstruction of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, it significantly heightens the risk of volatility at the Red Sea’s southern gateway, potentially severing the primary arterial link to the Suez Canal.

YANGON, Myanmar, July 24 (IPS) - When asked what development looks like today, a community leader in Kalaw township points to these fields. Once destroyed by a typhoon, they are now productive again. What began as emergency food assistance in the first month was followed by UNDP support in the community—seeds, training, debris removal, support to microbusinesses and small infrastructure—backed by the Republic of Korea, Norway and Switzerland. One year on, the fields sustain three annual production cycles—rice and flowers—with more resilient practices and higher yields. “This is what development looks like to us,” he says.

When conflict erupts, disasters strike or political crises unfold, courts are among the few institutions expected to keep functioning – ensuring the essential rule of law is maintained.

Member States of the International Criminal Court dismissed its Prosecutor Karim Khan following disciplinary proceedings related to widely reported sexual misconduct allegations at an emergency session at UN Headquarters in New York on Friday.

The world needs more critical minerals than ever before for electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and smartphones.

One month after twin earthquakes rocked Venezuela, thousands of women and girls continue to face difficulty in accessing essential healthcare and protection services, a senior official with the UN reproductive and sexual health agency UNFPA said on Friday.

A new mobile UN peacekeeping base in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has allowed local authorities to continue responding to the fast-moving Ebola outbreak there after violence disrupted the work of medics at a treatment centre set up to contain the spread.

As fighting intensifies in the Middle East, the United Nations on Friday warned against further escalation in the US-Iran war and the risks to global shipping amid the fight over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The amount of land burned by wildfires across Europe has increased by 57 per cent in four years, according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe.

In El Obeid, women and girls now face an impossible choice over something as basic as a bucket of water: risk a drone strike by collecting it in daylight, or risk rape by waiting until dark.