Global Issues News Headlines for “Mainstream Media”

The UN Human Rights Council at 20: Credibility in Question

2026-11-02T05:26:36-08:00

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay / BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, November 2 (IPS) - On 13 October, Burundi won a second consecutive term on the UN Human Rights Council, the UN’s main human rights body. The CIVICUS Monitor rates civic space in Burundi as closed, the worst category. Its government has spent years silencing civil society, critics and opposition parties, including through extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and torture.

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Afghanistan’s Stolen Peace: The Women Who Refuse to Be Silenced

2026-10-15T17:39:48-07:00

BENGALURU, India, October 15 (IPS) - When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Zahra Nader was pursuing a doctorate in Women and Gender studies at York University in Canada. Nader had planned to return to Afghanistan to continue her research, possibly teach at Kabul University, and continue exploring Afghan women’s role in political history.

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Smartphone Ban Robs Afghan Female Journalists of a Vital Working Tool

2026-10-08T11:09:54-07:00

KABUL, October 8 (IPS) - It has become difficult for Afghan journalists to obtain information from the authorities, who are permitted to use smartphones only with special authorization. This ban particularly affects women, for whom face-to-face interviews are not an option.

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BRICS: Growing Ambition, Zero Accountability

2026-09-30T04:44:32-07:00

BRUSSELS, Belgium / MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, September 30 (IPS) - At the 18th BRICS Summit, held on 12 and 13 September in New Delhi, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought together presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran, along with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, representing the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Around the table sat longstanding rivals such as India and China and, in the case of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, states on opposite sides of an ongoing war. That the summit produced a joint declaration every member could sign was a modest multilateralist success.

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Myanmar: Corporate Complicity in the Spotlight

2026-09-25T14:41:47-07:00

LONDON, September 25 (IPS) - On 15 September, Norwegian police and security services raided the headquarters of Telenor in Oslo. Authorities accuse the multinational telecoms company, majority owned by the Norwegian state, of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in Myanmar and breaching sanctions.

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Sudan: Blood on Foreign Powers’ Hands

2026-09-21T04:49:26-07:00

LONDON, September 21 (IPS) - Sudan’s civil war grinds on. It’s close to three and a half years since the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia began their battle for supremacy, and the two forces and their allies continue to slaughter civilians with impunity. As a recent UN report makes clear, the killing is enabled by numerous foreign powers that continue to supply weapons, personnel and logistical support. They have made a civil conflict their proxy war, and their self-interest is sustaining the killing.

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ETHIOPIA: ‘Reporting on Abuses Shouldn’t Be Treated as a Threat to National Interest’

2026-09-17T05:48:40-07:00

CIVICUS discusses renewed conflict and a growing crackdown on independent media in Ethiopia with Yonas Kedir, Editor-in-Chief of the independent news outlet Addis Standard, who was recently abducted and detained by government forces.

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PHILIPPINES: ‘Responding to Disinformation Can’t Mean Giving the Government a Mandate to Police Truth’

2026-09-11T11:21:24-07:00

CIVICUS discusses the implications of the Philippines’ proposed anti-disinformation bill with Josalee Deinla, Secretary-General of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, a civil society organisation that defends civil liberties in the Philippines.

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US Plans to Restrict Foreign Journalists Trigger Rising Protests

2026-09-10T05:58:46-07:00

UNITED NATIONS, September 10 (IPS) - First, it was the mass deportations of undocumented aliens, then a crackdown on liberal-minded academics from prestigious US Universities, and now, restrictions on foreign journalists based in the US.

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The USA and Dictatorship – Gödel’s Loophole

2026-09-09T05:12:07-07:00

ROME, September 9 (IPS) - Observing some of the changes over the last year and a half in the Government of the USA, one question that comes to mind is whether the greatest democracy in the world turning into a dictatorship? And, if so, how is this possible in a country with one of the most articulate and thoughtful constitutions ever written –a constitution which clearly sets out checks and balances precisely to avoid undue concentration of power.

Read the full story, “The USA and Dictatorship – Gödel’s Loophole”, on globalissues.org →