(UN News)* —The small trickle of aid entering Gaza is totally insufficient to alleviate starvation and displacement in the Strip, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday [].
“The risk of starvation is everywhere in Gaza,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
“This is a direct result of the Israeli government’s policy of blocking humanitarian aid,” he said.
Mr. Al-Kheetan insisted that in the past few weeks, Israeli authorities have only allowed aid to enter in quantities that remain “far below what would be required to avert widespread starvation”.
On 19 August, we mark the World Humanitarian Day — a time to honor those who step into crises to help others, and to stand with the millions of people whose lives hang in the balance.
PHOTO:United Nations
This year the message is clear: the humanitarian system is stretched to its limits; underfunded, overwhelmed and under attack.
Where bombs fall and disasters strike, humanitarian workers are the ones holding the line keeping people alive, often at great personal risk. But more and more those who help are becoming targets themselves.
In 2024 alone over 380 humanitarian workers were killed. Some in the line of duty, others in their homes. Hundreds more have been injured, kidnapped or detained, and there is reason to fear 2025 could be worse.
“The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, yet a handful of bad actors were allowed to use process to drive such ambition into the ground,” said one environmentalist.
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Plastic waste washes ashore in the Maldives archipelago. Credit: UNDP
NEW YORK, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)** –– Negotiators in Geneva adjourned what was expected to be the final round of plastics treaty negotiations on Friday [15 August 2025] without reaching an agreement, a failure that environmentalists blamed on the Trump-led United States, Saudi Arabia, and other powerful nations that opposed any effort to curb plastic production—the primary driver of a worsening global pollution crisis.
The Dewele Migration Response Centre in eastern Ethiopia offers returning migrants a moment of rest before they continue their journey home. Photo: IOM/Aïssatou Sy
Dewele, Ethiopia, 15 August 2025 – In the dry borderlands near Dewele in eastern Ethiopia, the air hangs heavy with heat as trucks thunder past, ferrying goods across the eastern corridor.
Amidst the dust, tired figures walk slowly beside the road, mostly young men, carrying nothing but a worn backpack, a bottle of water, and a stubborn belief that something better lies ahead.
Ibrahim* remembers that walk all too well – five days on foot across harsh terrain, each step marked by exhaustion and uncertainty.
12 August 2025 — For 14-year-old Atsede Tesfay, each morning began with a jerrycan and a three-kilometre walk to the nearest water source. The journey was open, exposed, and unsafe. The road was long, the risks familiar. She spent more hours searching for water and fewer hours in class.
“It was painful,” Atsede recalls. “But we had no other choice.”
Rehabilitated well. | Photo: NRC | In Fiyelwuha village in northern Ethiopia, water once flowed within reach of every home. Then came conflict, and the wells that sustained the community were intentionally destroyed by troops in the contested area. The lifeline ran dry.
In Dima District, the destruction of water infrastructure during the conflict cut off clean water access for over 2,900 people.
Families were left with few options like using unsafe water or embarking on dangerous journeys to obtain it.
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.
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.
Cuts to a programme that maintained communal facilities for refugees in Cox’s Bazar have meant lost income for families and a more precarious environment in the camps.
(UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)* — In the hilly terrain of Cox’s Bazar, life for over 1 million Rohingya refugees in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp is always a struggle, but monsoon season brings fresh challenges.
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.
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 