BULAWAYO & BANGKOK, Oct 31 2025 (IPS)* – From the streets of Bangkok to power corridors in Washington, the civil society space for dissent is fast shrinking.
Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General, CIVICUS Global Alliance. Credit: CIVICUS
Authoritarian regimes are silencing opposition but indirectly fueling corruption and widening inequality, according to a leading global civil society alliance.
The warning is from Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General of CIVICUSGlobal Alliance, who points to a troubling trend: civil society is increasingly considered a threat to those in power.
That is a sobering assessment from CIVICUS, which reports that a wave of repression by authoritarian regimes is directly fueling corruption and exploding inequality.
Funding cuts are forcing WFP to sharply shrink assistance to hundreds of thousands asylum seekers
Nyibol (carrying baby) and her children arrive in Gambella, Ethiopia, after a days-long trek from South Sudan. Photo: WFP/Michael Tewelde
– Nyibol and her four children crossed from their native South Sudan into Ethiopia last April, feeling weak from hunger. It had been days since their last meal.
“My children are small; the journey was difficult for them,” recalls Nyibol, describing struggling with sickness during a two-week long journey
More details continued to emerge on Friday of atrocities committed during and after the fall of El Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Since the powerful paramilitary group made a major incursion into the city last week, the UN human rights office has received “horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN human rights office (OHCHR).
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31 2025 (IPS)* – The United States, the largest single contributor to the UN budget, is using its financial clout to threaten the United Nations by cutting off funds and withdrawing from several UN agencies.
Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
In an interview with Breitbart News U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mike Waltz said last week “a quarter of everything the UN does, the United States pays for”.
“Is there money being well spent? I’d say right now, no, because it’s being spent on all of these other woke projects, rather than what it was originally intended to do, what President Trump wants it to do, and what I want it to do, which is focus on peace.”
As Hurricane Melissa moved north of Jamaica on Wednesday, the head of the UN team there said that preliminary damage assessments from the category 5 storm showed a level of devastation “never seen before” on the Caribbean island.
As Hurricane Melissa moved north of Jamaica on Wednesday, the head of the UN team there said that preliminary damage assessments from the category 5 storm showed a level of devastation “never seen before” on the Caribbean island.
29 October 2025 (UN News)* —Horrific stories of mass-atrocities committed by the RSF militia continue to emerge, along with the tens of thousands of civilians who have fled the North Darfur city of El Fasher in Sudan.
The World Health Organization says it’s appalled and deeply shocked by reports that 460 patients and their companions have been killed at Saudi Maternity Hospital in the city.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that prior to this latest attack, WHO has verified 285 attacks on healthcare in Sudan with at least 1,204 deaths and over 400 injuries of health workers and patients, since the start of the conflict.
Harqabobe, Somalia – On nights when storm clouds gathered over the valley, fear ran through the community. “When it rained, we worried what might come from the valley,” recalls Huria.
“Would the water rise while we slept? Would it come without warning on a clear day?”
Huria stands among those leading efforts to restore the land and protect their homes from future floods. Photo: IOM 2025/Yusuf Abdirahman
For years, this small village in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region, north of Mogadishu, was caught in a brutal cycle. Rains came hard and erratic, washing through the valley and tearing apart homes and fields.
(UN News)* — Over 900 days of brutal conflict, widespread human rights violations, famine, and the collapse of essential services have driven millions of people in Sudan to the “brink of survival” – with women and children bearing the heaviest burden.
Sudan stands at the epicentre of one of the world’s “most severe” humanitarian crises, according to the UN.
.
Over 30 million people now need urgent humanitarian assistance, among them 9.6 million displaced from their homes and nearly 15 million children caught in a struggle for daily survival.
(UN News)* — The UN and its partners are accelerating deliveries of life-saving aid across Gaza, but relief efforts remain constrained by access restrictions and overwhelming humanitarian needs, officials said on Friday [].
Since the ceasefire on 10 October, the UN migration agency IOM has dispatched more than 47,000 relief items, including 2,500 tents, to help families rebuild amid devastation.
“People in Gaza have endured unimaginable loss,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope.
Achieving gender equality and empowering women is not only the right thing to do but is a critical ingredient in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger and climate change.
Women engaged in wage employment in agriculture earn 82 cents for every dollar that men earn, according to a recent FAO report. PHOTO:Sasint/Adobe Stock
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 