Global Issues

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (IPS) - Professor Kaveh Madani of Iran has been named the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize laureate. The award will be formally presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in August during World Water Week in Stockholm. Read the full story, “EXCLUSIVE: Water Laureate Kaveh Madani on Arrest, Exile and Fight for Science”, on globalissues.org →

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, March 25 (IPS) - Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits member states from using threats or force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Violating international law, the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, 2026. The ostensible reason for this unprovoked aggression was to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Read the full story, “A World Order in Crisis: War, Power, and Resistance”, on globalissues.org →

RUFIJI, Tanzania, March 24 (IPS) - By the time the auction begins at Nangurukuru fish market in Tanzania’s southern Lindi region, the crisis is already visible. Wooden canoes that once returned from the Rufiji River with heavy catches now bring only a fraction of what they used to. Traders scan for the long-whiskered catfish that once defined the market but find none. Read the full story, “As East Africa’s Migratory Fish Vanish, a Food Security Crisis Surfaces”, on globalissues.org →

GENEVA, March 24 (IPS) - As trade ministers gather in Yaoundé, Cameroon, for the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) on 26–29 March 2026, the preparatory process has produced a dense fog of competing reform proposals, draft ministerial statements, and work plans. Read the full story, “What the US Really Wants from MC14 in Yaoundé”, on globalissues.org →

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 24 (IPS) - In mid-1971, US President Nixon ended the dollar’s gold peg at $35 per ounce, triggering de-dollarisation. The 2025 gold and silver rush followed private speculators trying to profit from central banks hedging against perceived new risks. Read the full story, “Central Bank Hedging Triggered Gold Fever”, on globalissues.org →

Deadly gangs in Haiti are expanding their reach to include control over key sea and road routes as police in the beleaguered Caribbean island nation are being accused of using “unnecessary and disproportionate lethal force and summary executions.”Read the full story, “Haitian gangs expand reach as police are accused of ‘summary executions’”, on globalissues.org →

The death toll from a horrific attack on a hospital in Sudan’s Darfur has risen further, amid a “sharp increase” in drone attacks against civilians this year, UN agencies said on Tuesday.Read the full story, “Sudan: Hospital strike highlights surge in drone attacks on civilians”, on globalissues.org →

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on Tuesday for countries to step up action to end tuberculosis (TB) – one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers – by expanding access to new diagnostic tools that can help save lives. Read the full story, “‘Truly transformative’ new diagnostic tools can help end tuberculosis”, on globalissues.org →

The latest wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine have reportedly killed and injured civilians and damaged critical infrastructure in Dnipro, Odesa, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and other regions.Read the full story, “World News in Brief: Airstrikes continue in Ukraine, refugees return to DR Congo, emergency aid for the ‘Dry Corridor’”, on globalissues.org →

As tensions escalate in the Middle East, the international community must not lose sight of the situation in Gaza, an official with US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace across the shattered enclave said on Tuesday in his first appearance in the UN Security Council. Read the full story, “Gaza: Commitment to US-backed plan crucial to recovery, Security Council hears”, on globalissues.org →