Unsplash/Jon Tyson | UNESCO says that hate speech is on the rise worldwide.
“It is an alarm bell: the louder it rings, the greater the threat of genocide,” he warned.
As part of its core mission to combat hatred, discrimination, racism and inequality, the UN is stepping up efforts to challenge hate speech wherever it arises.
“Hate speech is poison in the well of society. It has paved the way for violence and atrocities during the darkest chapters of human history,” Mr. Guterres added.
(UN News)* — Gaza’s health system is at breaking point, overwhelmed time and again by scores of people killed or injured near aid distribution sites, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday .
UN News | The Israeli military’s evacuation orders apply to 80 per cent of Gaza, leaving many of the enclave’s people displaced.
“We are walking the fine grey line between operational capacity and full disaster, every day,” said Dr Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer, speaking from the enclave.
The veteran UN medic’s comments came amid new reports on Tuesday morning that more Palestinians had been killed trying to access food, this time near an aid distribution site in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Up to 40% of all land area worldwide already considered degraded.
Healthy land underpins thriving economies, with over half of global GDP dependent on nature. Yet we are depleting this natural capital at an alarming rate: every minute, the equivalent of four football fields is lost due to land degradation.
.
A young boy herds his families cattle in the dry and desolate lanscape of the city of Tawaila in Northern Darfur. UN Photo/Fred Noy.
.
This drives biodiversity loss, increasing drought risk and displacing communities. The ripple effects are global—from rising food prices to instability and migration.
(UN Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)* —North-east Nigeria is facing its worst malnutrition crisis in five years. More than 1 million children under age 5 across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are at risk of severe acute malnutrition – that’s twice as many children as last year and the highest number on record.
Falmata and her granddaughter, Aisha, at the entrance of their makeshift shelter in Sangaya displacement camp, Dikwa, Borno State. Photo: OCHA/Chima Onwe
For families who already endured years of conflict and displacement, hunger is a new and urgent threat.
“We’ve been here since 2016,” said Falmata Idris, 53, who lives in a makeshift shelter in the Sangaya camp for internally displaced people in Dikwa, Borno State, with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Aisha.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 17 2025 (IPS)* – Wars, economic shocks, planetary heating and aid cuts have worsened food crises in recent years, with almost 300 million people now threatened by starvation.
FAO statistics indicate enough output to feed the world’s eight billion plus another three billion!
Clearly, inadequate food due to population growth cannot explain persistent hunger. Yet, the number of hungry people has been rising for more than a decade.
So, why are so many hungry if there is more than enough food for all?
The multi-stakeholder 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) notes 2024 was the sixth consecutive year of high and growing acute food insecurity, with 295.3 million people starving!
In 2023, 733 million people experienced chronic hunger. Over a fifth (22.6%) of the 53 countries/territories assessed in this year’s GRFC were especially vulnerable.
Dawood is 19 years old and living in a crowded Rohingya refugee settlement in Bangladesh. He says his life is shattered.
In February 2024, the Myanmar military conscripted Dawood and other Rohingya men and boys to fight the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, in Rakhine State. They received little or no training, and dozens were killed or injured.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Jun 16 2025 (IPS)** – At a White House meeting, presidents Nayib Bukele and Donald Trump exchanged praises and joked about mass incarceration while discussing an unprecedented agreement: the USA would pay El Salvador US$6 million a year to house deportees – of any nationality, potentially including US citizens – in its Centre for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), a notorious mega-prison.
Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters via Gallo Images
This agreement marked the evolution of Bukele’s authoritarian model from a domestic experiment to an exportable commodity for strongmen worldwide.
Sudan, Palestine, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali remain hotspots of highest concern, and Democratic Republic of the Congo has returned as a hunger hotspot to watch.
A woman collects WFP food assistance in Goma, where a precarious calm reigns after fighting earlier this year. Photo: WFP/Benjamin Anguandia
ROME, – A new joint UN report warns that people in five hunger hotspots around the world face extreme hunger and risk of starvation and death in the coming months unless there is urgent humanitarian action and a coordinated international effort to de-escalate conflict, stem displacement, and mount an urgent full-scale aid response.
Over two hundred press freedom advocacy groups and international newsrooms have joined Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in issuing a public appeal demanding that foreign journalists be granted immediate, independent and unrestricted access to the Gaza Strip
(Ottawa) –G7 leaders should commit to taking concrete actions to halt Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory at their upcoming summit, Human Rights Watch on 13 June 2025 said in a letter to G7 leaders.
Leaders of the G7 will be gathering in Kananaskis, Alberta from June 15-17, 2025, for the Leaders’ Summit hosted by Canada.
The summit takes place in the context of ongoing hostilities and Israel’s unlawful blockade of Gaza, where the world’s foremost experts on food security warn that there’s a high risk of imminent famine for the entire civilian population.
A young boy herds his families cattle in the dry and desolate lanscape of the city of Tawaila in Northern Darfur. UN Photo/Fred Noy.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 