News headlines in 2026, page 40

Although women are more likely than young men to pursue higher education, they make up only 35 per cent of science graduates.

Fresh airstrikes and shelling across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours have put civilians at renewed risk and compounded months of hardship, the UN said on Tuesday, warning that humanitarian needs continue to outpace access and capacity.

Escalating violence, political stalemate and humanitarian constraints are pushing South Sudan’s civilians to the brink once again, while funding cuts weaken the UN mission tasked with protecting them.

From a crochet hook in a Cairo living room to digital marketplaces reaching across borders, women entrepreneurs are demonstrating how creativity, persistence and targeted support can translate into livelihoods — even when formal employment is out of reach.

The President of the United Nations General Assembly appealed on Tuesday for Europe to protect the international rules-based system, defend the truth in the face of fake news and other falsehoods, and support UN reform.

Fish fraud is widespread in markets, grocers and restaurants around the world, but a growing number of innovative tools are turning the tide, according to a new report published on Tuesday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Relentless violence, famine and disease are fuelling a rising death toll among children in Sudan, while attacks on healthcare and a lack of aid access hamper efforts to help them, UN aid agencies warned on Tuesday.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk appealed on Tuesday to all parties involved in renewed heavy fighting in Ethiopia’s ‘precarious’ Tigray region to step back, warning of the potential for a deepening crisis in the country’s war-weary north and beyond.

The Pacific Island countries are at the frontline of climate change. Their territories mostly consist of small, low-lying islands, with long coastlines and vast ocean spaces between them. Many livelihoods are based on agriculture or fishing, and importing water or food is often infeasible or expensive. This makes those large ocean nations highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as storms, droughts, and rising sea levels. Analysts have expressed concerns that this can result in various forms of socio-political conflict.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe & MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, February 9 (IPS) - Business can still remain profitable while protecting the environment but invest in nature-positive operations, says a landmark report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which finds that global companies have contributed to the escalating loss of biodiversity.