News headlines in 2024

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 17 (IPS) - Rising temperatures are being blamed for an increase in human-wildlife conflicts in Zimbabwe as animals such as snakes leave their natural habitat earlier than usual.

ATAFONA, Brazil, May 17 (IPS) - Sonia Ferreira watched as the sea toppled buildings all around her for years. Finally, the impact of the rise in sea levels wrecked her home in 2019. Fishermen find their access to a fishing port limited, affecting their livelihoods. The residents of the coastal town of Atafona in southeastern Brazil count their losses to rising sea levels and climate change.

WASHINGTON DC, May 17 (IPS) - Dislocations from the pandemic, geoeconomic fragmentation, and Russia’s war in Ukraine have shifted world trade dynamics. While this has created challenges, the redirection of trade has also generated new opportunities, particularly for the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday urged the Sri Lankan Government to take decisive action to uncover the fates and locations of tens of thousands of individuals subjected to enforced disappearances over the years and to hold those responsible accountable.

The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), on Friday, heard the response from Israel on the case brought forward by South Africa requesting emergency provisional measures to immediately halt Israeli military operations under way in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where over one million Palestinians were sheltering after having been displaced from elsewhere in the enclave.

Trucks carrying desperately needed aid into Gaza have started moving ashore on the temporary floating dock built by the United States military, but this is not enough to meet the needs of civilians, UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Friday.

Global efforts to prevent crimes against nature and bring offenders to justice are being hampered by glaring differences in environmental protection laws among countries and regions, UN crime prevention experts said on Friday.

The UN’s top human rights official has personally intervened to try to stop spiralling violence in Sudan that’s having a terrifying impact on millions of civilians, who humanitarians say are “staring famine in the face”.

May 16 (IPS) - Afghanistan is grappling with a growing crisis of mental illness, particularly among its women, as highlighted in a United Nations report. Officials from the mental health department at Herat regional hospital have observed a concerning uptick in the number of women afflicted by psychological disorders in the province.

LONDON, May 16 (IPS) - There’s change at the top in Solomon Islands – but civil society will be watching closely to see whether that means a government that’s grown hostile will start doing things differently.

Jeremiah Manele is the new prime minister, emerging from negotiations that followed April’s general election. He’s part of OUR Party, led by outgoing four-time prime minister Manasseh Sogavare. The party came first, winning 15 of 50 constituencies, but several incumbents who stood for it lost their parliamentary seats, and Sogavare only narrowly held his. Weakened, Sogavare stood aside to allow Manele to prevail as the consensus candidate of the post-election coalition his party stitched together.