News headlines
Battlefields to wastelands: UN warns conflicts are destroying ecosystems worldwide
- UN News

From Gaza to Ukraine and beyond, conflict has caused widespread death and destruction, but it has also devastated natural resources such as water systems, farmland and forests.
UN chief urges world leaders to drive down global warming
- UN News

As world leaders gather in Brazil for the COP30 climate summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday called for urgent action to drive down global temperatures and keep the 1.5°C goal within reach.
Doha summit ends with call to turn social pledges into action
- UN News

The Second World Summit for Social Development concluded in Doha on Thursday with calls for countries to move swiftly from commitments to implementation, ensuring that the Doha Political Declaration delivers measurable progress on poverty reduction, decent work and social inclusion.
New Brazil-led fund aims to put forest protection at the heart of climate action
- UN News

Tropical forests, vital allies in the fight against climate breakdown, are vanishing at an alarming rate. On Thursday, in a bid to help reverse this trend, Brazil launched a new initiative at a summit of world leaders in Belém, the gateway to the Amazon.
Afghanistan: Opium cultivation drops sharply, but regional trafficking rises
- UN News

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has fallen by 20 per cent compared to last year, continuing a dramatic decline since the introduction of a nationwide ban under the Taliban in 2022 – but synthetic drugs and shifting trafficking routes are posing new challenges.
Western Sahara: Half a Century of Occupation and One Last Betrayal
- Inter Press Service

ROME, November 5 (IPS) - Ehmudi Lebsir was 17 when he trudged more than 50 kilometres across the desert to stay alive. Half a century on, the Sahrawi refugee still has not gone home to what was then Spanish province of Western Sahara.
Power-Sharing — Boomers and Gen Z Face Off at the ICSW
- Inter Press Service

BANGKOK, November 5 (IPS) - The message is clear: today’s youth are not “wishy-washy.” They are not just the future—they are the present, full partners in shaping it, and “power-sharing” is the new mantra. The veterans of activism are being reminded not merely to listen but to hear and to leave their egos at the door.
Deliver Emission Cuts, or Risk Locking the World Into ‘Catastrophic Warming’
- Inter Press Service

SRINAGAR, India, November 5 (IPS) - The world is falling dangerously short of meeting the Paris Agreement goals, with global greenhouse gas emissions rising to record levels and current national pledges still far off the mark, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in its Emissions Gap Report 2025: Off Target.
Tanzania’s Post-Election Turmoil Deepens Economic and Social Woes
- Inter Press Service

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, November 5 (IPS) - At dawn in Manzese, a dusty township on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, silence hangs where the sounds of commerce once roared. The township, usually crowded with street cooks, vegetable vendors, mechanics, and motorcycle taxis snaking through the morning rush, stood eerily empty. Shutters are pulled down, wooden stalls abandoned, and the air is heavy with the smell of burnt rubber. For five days, the township’s bustling economic life has been paralyzed—leaving residents unable to buy food or access basic services.
COP30: New Faces, Old Issues: What Must Change if Global Climate Talks Are to Deliver Justice for Africa
- Inter Press Service

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia / ABUJA, Nigeria , November 5 (IPS) - Three decades after the first Climate COP, the multilateral climate process – which was intended to serve as an instrument of justice and a guardian of the planet’s atmosphere – has fallen far short of its goals.

