News headlines in March 2025

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - In 2025, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti has grown increasingly dire amid the ongoing gang wars. With rates of displacement, child recruitment, food insecurity, physical violence, and sexual violence having skyrocketed in the past year alone, the national police have found it difficult to keep gang activity under control.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - The United Nations chief announced on Wednesday (March 12) a new initiative that aims to assess areas of efficiency and improvement for the international organization to expand its efforts and recognize the need “for even greater urgency and ambition.”

NEW YORK, Mar 12 (IPS) - David L. Phillips is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for European Studies.Israel’s decision to suspend electricity supplies to Gaza has far-reaching consequences for daily life of Palestinians as well as Gaza’s reconstruction. Managing Gaza’s energy crisis will require the development of alternative supplies, which are found in off-shore natural gas fields that can be developed off the coast of Israel and Gaza in the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed).

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - Antonio Guterres is the Secretary-General of the United NationsAs we mark the 80th anniversary of the United Nations this year, our world is facing challenges on every front. These trials and tests affect every aspect of our work: multiplying and enduring conflict; inadequate progress in reducing poverty and advancing sustainable development; the widespread flouting of international law and violation of human rights; the lack of guard rails for transformative technologies; and many other obstacles to effective multilateral responses.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - With enough steel and concrete, the hospitals that have been smashed to bits in Gaza can be rebuilt. But a construction plan paired with an army of bulldozers will not be enough to reconstruct the entirety of Gaza's health care system, which, after many months of war, has been decimated by the Israeli military forces.

Online attacks against women are getting worse, according to the UN, causing lasting damage that can spill over into real world violence. Leading activists from Spain and Latin America met at UN Headquarters on Wednesday to rally women and share strategies on fighting back.

Following 11 days of an Israeli aid blockade in Gaza, “crucial progress” made during the first six weeks of the ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas militants “continues to unravel”, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric on Wednesday.

The UN’s top relief official warned on Wednesday that the global humanitarian system has reached breaking point, with funding cuts forcing life-or-death decisions over which aid programmes to sustain and which to shut down.

Children make up almost four in 10 victims of trafficking worldwide, but the true number of youngsters caught up in the illegal practice is likely much higher, a senior UN official warned on Wednesday.

The UN launched a bold new action agenda to boost rights and achieve gender equality at a high-level event on the sidelines of the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) session at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday.