News headlines in July 2024

NAIROBI, Jul 31 (IPS) - International African Women’s Day on July 31 recognizes the contribution of African women toward political, social, and economic freedom on the continent. But gender equality is still not a reality for most African women.

PARIS, Jul 31 (IPS) - As cheers from beach-volleyball fans fill the air at the Eiffel Tower Stadium on a steamy, sunny day, pedestrians just down the road are enjoying another kind of show: an outdoor exhibition of huge photographs gleaming on the metal railings of UNESCO headquarters.

URBANA, Illinois, US, Jul 31 (IPS) - Kenyan Gen Z recently led a series of historic protests that resulted in Kenya’s President rejecting the Finance Bill 2023 and dissolving his cabinet.  These protests are inspiring a wave of changerevolutions, and optimism in Kenya and the African Continent.

MUNICH, Jul 31 (IPS) - Jay Mulucha, Executive Director of FEM Alliance Uganda, gave an impassioned plea to governments around the world to push lawmakers in his home country to reverse punitive new legislation criminalizing the LGBT+ community.

NEW YORK, Jul 31 (IPS) - Global warming, widely believed to be a universal crisis, will actually impact girls and women far more than boys and men. It is already known that we live in a patriarchal world, one in which men are afforded far greater opportunities for success while women generally hold less societal power and have access to fewer resources. This especially pertains to developing countries in which agriculture related work, usually delegated to females, depends on a variety of environmental factors and subsequently, significantly hurts their livelihoods.

NEW YORK, Jul 31 (IPS) - Within the Democratic field, no potential candidate for president is better-positioned, at this juncture, to defeat Trump more skillfully and pointedly than Kamala Harris. She is writing a new chapter in American history that will chart a new national course impacting future generations.

The heads of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called for greater access to breastfeeding support to both reduce health inequity and ensure mothers and babies can survive and thrive.

The UN’s top political affairs official reiterated the urgent need for de-escalation in the Middle East, appealing in the Security Council on Wednesday for “swift and effective diplomatic action”, as ambassadors met in an emergency meeting on the latest flare-up in hostilities.

Thousands of people have returned to parts of Khan Younis in Gaza following the announced completion of Israeli ground operations in these areas earlier in the week, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Wednesday

The conflict in Sudan has led to a horrifying surge in violence against children, a new UN report has revealed, underscoring the need for urgent and tangible protection measures.