Global Issues

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (IPS) - On Monday July 20, a team from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited two displacement sites in Gaza where they found two family tents decimated by domestic fires. This incident is indicative of the increasing frequency of domestic fires in Gaza. Read the full story, “Ongoing Need for Humanitarian Assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, on globalissues.org →

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (IPS) - On Wednesday, July 22, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, best known as a 123 agreement, as well as an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the Saudi Ministry of Energy. Read the full story, “U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Agreement Opens Door to Civilian Nuclear Cooperation, with One Major Caveat”, on globalissues.org →

GENEVA, July 27 (IPS) - Seventy-five years after the Refugee Convention was opened for signature on 28 July 1951, it remains the foundation of the international refugee protection system and one of the most consequential international legal instruments ever adopted. Read the full story, “UNHCR: 75 years on, the Refugee Convention Remains a Lifeline for Millions”, on globalissues.org →

When 10-year-old Ukrainian gymnast Sasha Paskal stepped onto the stage in New York's Times Square this week, she carried a message far bigger than her performance.Read the full story, “After war took her leg, this Ukrainian gymnast refused to give up”, on globalissues.org →

Shortly before sunrise, Palestinian Fathi Hajji begins an arduous thrice weekly journey to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.Read the full story, “Gaza: Dialysis patients face grueling hospital journey by donkey cart”, on globalissues.org →

A country long known as a meeting point of civilizations, Syria stands once again at a crossroadsRead the full story, “Syria’s hopes for renewal hinge on rebuilding trust, lives and livelihoods”, on globalissues.org →

Syria has an opportunity not only to recover from conflict but to build “a future that is more stable, more inclusive and more prosperous for all Syrians”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in Damascus on Saturday as he began a landmark visit to the country.Read the full story, “UN chief hails Syria’s ‘moment of possibility’ on first visit since fall of Assad regime”, on globalissues.org →

When Samantha Richards and Angela Hifume walked into the Hall of Flags at United Nations Headquarters last week, they carried more than a folder of paper. They carried the voices of hundreds of street-connected children who had never expected anyone to listen.Read the full story, “‘I am somebody’: Street-smart youth take their declaration to the UN”, on globalissues.org →

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, July 24 (IPS) - José Rubén Zamora, founder of elPeriódico, Guatemala’s now-defunct leading investigative newspaper, spent 1,295 days in detention before a court granted him house arrest on 12 February. He endured long stretches of solitary confinement in a military jail, held in near-constant darkness and subjected to treatment that six UN experts warned could amount to torture. His offence was simply doing his job. For decades, he exposed the corrupt dealings of Guatemala’s economic and political elites. Prosecutors are still trying to send him back to prison. Read the full story, “Guatemala: A Narrow Opening in a Captured Justice System”, on globalissues.org →

ROME, July 24 (IPS) - After two days of debate at an international conference devoted to the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI), nuclear war and global security, Nobel laureates, former heads of state and government, scientists, human rights defenders, religious leaders and representatives of civil society adopted a joint declaration, calling for it to be based on human dignity. Read the full story, “From Castel Gandolfo to Campidoglio: Call for Human Dignity to Be at the Heart of the AI Revolution”, on globalissues.org →