Frosty morning in Pingjum Friesland, The Netherlands.
PHOTO:WMO Photostream/Anna Zuidema
Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time. It also exacerbates climate change, causes economic losses, and reduces agricultural productivity.
It knows no borders – everyone has a responsibility to protect our atmosphere and ensure healthy air for all.
By collaborating across borders, sectors, and silos, we can reduce air pollution through collective investments of time, resources and efforts.
Naminaue, Mozambique, 3 September 2025 – “This water is sweet,” says Merina, watching clear water flow from a newly rehabilitated borehole in Naminaue, northern Mozambique.
For the past five years she has lived in this displacement site, and for her, the taste of clean water brings back a rare sense of normalcy after years of conflict and loss.
Before displacement, Merina’s life in Litamanda village in Macomia District was steady. Her family farmed maize, rice, and sweet potatoes, slept on proper beds, and even watched Brazilian soap operas on television.
That ended the day armed groups attacked. Merina lost her husband in the violence and fled with nothing.
Merina scoops fresh water from the newly rehabilitated borehole – the first safe source in years. Photo: IOM 2025/Amanda Nero
PORTLAND, USA, Sep 4 2025 (IPS)** ––It is becoming increasingly apparent that planet Earth is evolving into the planet of the aged. In nearly every country around the world, the numbers and percentages of the aged, commonly defined as individuals aged 65 years or older, haveincreased rapidly.
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Despite living longer lives, the aged are opposed to raising official retirement ages, reducing retirement benefits, or raising taxes on the elderly. They are increasingly protesting, resisting, and demanding that retirement ages stay the same and benefits remain intact. Credit: Shutterstock
7 September 2025 —In the midst of bombing, shelling and access denial, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) continues to deliver safe water to thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.
Photo: Nasser Harara/NRC
Since October 2023, Israel has repeatedly attacked water facilities, wells, pipelines, desalination units and sewage systems in Gaza.
(UN News)* — Sanctions imposed by the United States on three prominent and well-respected Palestinian human rights groups are “completely unacceptable and should be withdrawn”, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday [].
(UN News)* — Governments, academia and other stakeholders must “double down on delivering reparatory justice” for people from the African diaspora, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report published on Wednesday [].
(UN News)* —A senior official from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Thursday [] he was extremely concerned over intensifying Israeli military operations in northern Gaza – including Gaza City – and warned against any attempt to annex parts of the West Bank.
Ajith Sunghay, Head of OHCHR’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), told UN News that the escalation has caused extensive destruction to residential buildings in southern parts of North Gaza governorate and in northeastern areas of Gaza City.
(UN News)* —The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called on Thursday [] for the international community to do everything possible to prevent catastrophe in Gaza City as Israel ramps up military operations ahead of a planned full takeover.
UN News | Families seek food at a community kitchen in western Gaza City.
Tess Ingram, Communication Manager for UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office, recently spent nine days there, describing it as “a city of fear, flight and funerals.”
“The last refuge for families in the northern Gaza Strip is fast becoming a place where childhood cannot survive,” she said, speaking from the enclave to journalists in New York.
2 September 2025 —More than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), with conditions such as anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls.
WHO / Christopher Black | Community mental health teams are one way of providing mental health care, Ukraine, 2023.
While many countries have bolstered their mental health policies and programmes, greater investment and action are needed globally to scale up services to protect and promote people’s mental health.
Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in all countries and communities, affecting people of all ages and income levels.