Armed conflict, climate shocks and economic downturn drive out local experts who take with them the know-how that is essential to reversing the crisis.
So the crisis continues. And the brain drain intensifies.
(Washington, DC) – The Trump administration’s omission of key sections and manipulation of certain countries’ rights abuses degrade and politicize the 2025 US State Department human rights report, Human Rights Watch on 12 August 2025 said.
(UN News)* — Sexual violence in conflict zones rose sharply in 2024, increasing by a quarter compared to the previous year, the UN reported on Thursday [].
More than 4,600 survivors endured abuses used as weapons of war, torture, terrorism and political repression.
According to the annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, both State and non-State actors were responsible for violations in 21 countries, with the highest numbers recorded in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan.
Women and girls made up 92% of victims, but men, boys, people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, racial and ethnic minorities – together with some persons with disabilities – were also targeted, ranging in age from one to 75.
FREIBURG, Germany, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)** –– The EU likes to think of itself as a normative power — a community of values, committed to upholding international law, promoting peace, protecting civilians and building a rules-based global order.
These are not just lofty ideals; they are enshrined in EU treaties, declarations and Council conclusions.
Credit: alliance/Anadolu/Moiz Salhi
But when it comes to the brutal, drawn-out destruction of Gaza and the continued illegal occupation of Palestine, these principles seem to have become hollow rhetoric.
Worse, they are being actively undermined by the craven inaction of the EU’s institutions and the blockage of governments like Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The European Commission has been shamefully absent as well.
WFP calls for humanitarian access, as Sudanese city grapples with starvation
Hunger and bombs forced eight-year-old Sondos and her family to flee Sudan’s North Darfur capital of El Fasher. Photo: WFP/Mohamed Galal
Surrounded by burlap bags and a sea of sand, eight-year-old Sondos describes fleeing Sudan’s war-besieged city of El Fasher with her family, after weeks surviving on only millet.
“Hunger forced us to leave,” said the little girl, speaking from Tawila displacement camp, roughly 75 kilometres away. “Only hunger and bombs,” she added of the shells raining down on North Darfur’s capital.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)* —The food crisis in Sudan is starving more day by day, yet it is affecting women and girls at double the rate compared to men in the same areas.
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In Sudan, women-led households are three times more likely to deal with serious food insecurity compared to male-led households. Credit: UN Women Sudan
New findings from UN-Women reveal that female-headed households (FHHs) are three times more likely to be food insecure than ones led by men.
(UN News)* — The UN has expressed deep alarm over a large-scale assault by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on El Fasher, the government-held capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State, and the nearby Abu Shouk displacement camp, which has been under siege since April 2024.
Monday’s attack left 40 civilians dead and 19 injured within Abu Shouk, according to humanitarian partners.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that the renewed violence forced at least 500 residents of the camp to flee to other parts of North Darfur.
Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Sheldon Yett, condemned “all deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians” in the strongest terms.
At 22 pages, the current draft text contains 32 draft articles which will be discussed in fine detail, according to the UN. The text is designed to shape the future instrument and will serve as a starting point for negotiations. For 10 days from 5-14 August, delegations from 179 countries will pore over the text as they meet at UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.
Plastic garbage is offloaded from a fishing boat on the east coast of China. Credit: UNEP/Justin Jin
GENEVA, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)** –– The future plastics treatyis being sold as potentially an environmental breakthrough. But in its current form during this week’s negotiations, it contains adangerous flawthat must be addressed before the final text is agreed — or it could undercut the world’s most widely ratified health treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and hand the tobacco industry the tools to expand its market under the banner of environmental action.
Land degradation and drought are fueling a hidden health crisis – but we still have time to act. When we speak of desertification or drought, we often think of dry rivers, cracked soil and failed harvests.
But there is another, less visible toll – one that strikes deep into the lungs, hearts and daily lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.
A new policy brief from the UNCCD reveals the far-reaching health impacts of land degradation and drought — and it delivers a stark message: the health of the planet and the health of people are inseparable.
Around the world, land is deteriorating at an alarming pace.
Between 2015 and 2019, more than 100 million hectares of productive land were lost each year. That’s an area roughly the size of Egypt — gone annually.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)* –– The accumulation of still growing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in an increasingly unequal world is accelerating planetary heating. It is also worsening disparities, especially between the rich and others, both nationally and internationally.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Unequal emissions In our grossly unequal world, international disparities account for two-thirds of overall income inequalities.
National income aggregates and averages can mislead by obscuring significant disparities within countries.
Meanwhile, GHG emissions continue to grow as their accumulation accelerates planetary heating.
Emissions disparities within nations now account for almost two-thirds of worldwide emissions inequality, nearly doubling from slightly over a third in 1990.
The bottom halves of rich country populations are already at – or close to – the 2030 per capita carbon dioxide equivalent emission targets set by their governments. Yet North America’s wealthiest 10% or decile are the world’s biggest GHG emitters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after being sworn in by Vice President JD Vance near the White House in Washington, DC, January 21, 2025. © 2025 AP Photo/Evan Vucci
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 