(UN News)* — In the occupied West Bank village of Kufr Qaddum, *Yousef stands behind a sealed iron gate, cut off from the olive trees that have sustained his family for generations.
Like thousands of Palestinian farmers, he faces growing restrictions from Israeli forces and settlers, who have made the olive harvest season – running from September to November – a time of uncertainty and struggle.
(UN News)* — Amid reports of increased Israeli military operations across Gaza City on Friday [], UN aid agencies repeated urgent warnings of ongoing famine and a likely rise in preventable disease, linked to the dire living conditions in the war-shattered enclave.
“We are on a descent into a massive famine,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, “and we need massive amounts of food getting into the Strip and safely distribute it across the Gaza Strip”.
Behind locked doors, thousands of migrants are trapped in modern slavery across Southeast Asia. Illustration: AI generated by CoPilot
Accra, Ghana, 29 August 2025 – When 32-year-old Samuel* left his hometown in Ghana, he carried more than a suitcase. He carried the weight of his family.
After graduating with a diploma in computer science, Samuel earned a modest income at an insurance company in Accra. But as the sole breadwinner for a family of eight after his father’s death, it was not enough.
(UN News)* — Climate change could push at least 5.9 million more children and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean into poverty by 2030 unless governments act now.
United Nations/Rodolpho Valente | Children play on the banks of the River Negro, a tributary of the Amazon River in northwestern Brazil.
Even worse, the number could triple if countries do not meet their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to ensure that climate financing prioritises social and climate resilience services for children.
The finding comes in a report by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), published on Thursday [28 August 2025] in Panama.
A report ‘Oil and Gas Expansion in the Colombian Amazon: Navigating Risks, Economics, and Pathways to a Sustainable Future, warns oil and gas projects threaten over 483,000 km² of Colombian Amazon forest, home to more than 70 indigenous groups, and risk becoming stranded assets as global fossil fuel demand declines.
BOGOTÁ and SRINAGAR, India, Aug 27 2025 (IPS)* –– A report has warned about the risks of expanding oil and gas exploration in the Colombian Amazon, which may undermine environmental goals, Indigenous rights, and long-term economic stability, unless the government pivots toward sustainable development pathways.
GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 25 August 2025 –“Where is the world watching what’s happening to us, and to our children? All families in the world have children,” said Inas, who lives in a displacement camp with her three children in Gaza city – where famine has been confirmed for the first time.
“Would they accept their children waking up hungry?”
(Washington, DC) –US military personnel could face legal liability for assisting Israeli forces who commit war crimes in Gaza, Human Rights Watch on 26 August 2025 said.
Direct participation by US forces in military operations in Gaza since October 2023, including by providing intelligence for Israeli strikes and conducting extensive coordination and planning, has made the United States a party to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.
Cradling 18-month-old Mohamed in her arms, Hedaia remembers a once-healthy child when food was available – despite Mohamed’s muscular atrophy, a rare genetic weakness.
Today, the little boy is skeletal.
.
Hedaia, holding 18-month-old Mohamed, who has a rare genetic disorder. She says he was a healthy little boy when there was enough food. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah “He needs milk, diapers and specific foods,” Hedaia said, as her son cried softly. “But we can’t afford them.” (For their safety, only the first names of Gazan interviewees are being used in this story.)
. Hedaia’s struggle to find food is reflected across Gaza, where 641,000 people will face catastrophic hunger by the end of September, according to figures released today (22 August).
27 Aug 2024 – The children of Gaza are being starved and killed.
Israel has killed 18,592 Palestinian children in the last two years and there are 39,000 children orphaned in Gaza. This forced starvation is an Israeli policy leading to famine.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
Calls for genocide come from high Israeli politicians and generals {see genocidal statement 18 Aug 2025 via Prof Michael de Graff}.
This is not a natural disaster; it is mass murder and intentional starvation of Gazans by Israel.
The suffering is deep and painful. Please do something to stop such preventable suffering and death of little Palestinian children by Israeli military and politicians.
Please President Trump, cut off weapons and diplomatic support and save the Palestinians from ethnic cleansing and genocide, which are being witnessed by the whole world.
NEW YORK, Aug 26 2025 (IPS)** –– President Trump, you are the only leader who can stop Netanyahu from committing another genocide in Gaza. The whole world is watching. Do not allow yourself to become an accessory to the murder of thousands of innocent Palestinian women and children and the utter destruction of what’s left of Gaza.
People wait for food at a community kitchen in western Gaza City. Credit: UN News
As I am writing this column, the Israeli military is converging on Gaza to destroy what has been left after 22 months of relentless war that killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and leveled to the ground 80 percent of its infrastructure.