BRUSSELS, Belgium / MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, September 30 (IPS) - At the 18th BRICS Summit, held on 12 and 13 September in New Delhi, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought together presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran, along with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, representing the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Around the table sat longstanding rivals such as India and China and, in the case of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, states on opposite sides of an ongoing war. That the summit produced a joint declaration every member could sign was a modest multilateralist success.

NEW YORK, September 30 (IPS) - Years ago, standing in a small farmer’s field in Haiti, I began to suspect that we had agriculture backward. The development world saw a man in need of rescue. I saw a farmer who might help rescue the rest of us.

The UN chief on Tuesday strongly condemned an airstrike that reportedly killed at least 50 people at a market in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and called for those responsible to be held to account.

Haji Mohammad Shafi spent 44 years in Pakistan before he was forced to leave. He sold everything he owned and returned to Afghanistan with his five children, arriving with almost nothing.

Food waste is helping to fuel global warming, one half-eaten sandwich at a time.

NEW YORK, September 29 (IPS) - “Artificial intelligence (AI) must be shaped by humanity, with humanity, and for all humanity… Life-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines. Killer robots must have no place in our future.”

Heavy fighting in Yemen is fuelling concerns of an uptick in cholera, measles and other preventable diseases, as overcrowding at displacement sites threatens to overwhelm the limited healthcare services still open.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.

The Security Council is meeting in New York on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Tuesday, where clashes between Government forces and M23 rebels continue in the east despite a series of peace agreements. Ambassadors are likely to focus on ceasefire monitoring, rising tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, and the country’s worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Amid rising tensions, extreme weather impacts and strikes on nuclear infrastructure in war-torn Iran and Ukraine, UN Member States are returning to the core issue of disarmament on Tuesday, closing out the General Assembly’s High-Level Week with expected calls for greater safeguards.

YAOUNDE, Cameroon, September 29 (IPS) - Agricultural, land, forestry, environmental and trade policies in the Congo Basin remain compartmentalised at country levels, leaving proven agroecological models trapped at pilot stages due to a lack of advisory services, organic inputs, market outlets and sustainable financing.

The continuing conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global energy markets and pushing up fuel prices, with knock-on effects far beyond the region.

UNITED NATIONS, September 29 (IPS) - On September 23, the United Nations held its 2026 Climate Summit as part of the High-Level Week of the 81st session of the General Assembly (UNGA 81). Convening civil society actors, climate scientists, major energy producers and consumers, development experts, and world leaders, the summit addressed critical strategies to mitigate the compounding impacts of the climate crisis and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

After six days of speeches from the UN General Assembly podium, one word rose above all others: peace. This final edition of The Takeaway distils the messages he said reverberated through the Assembly Hall and looks at where the 193-member body goes from here.

“No country is free of racism.” That warning from US youth activist Marley Dias set the tone on Monday as UN Member States reinvigorated global efforts against racism, discrimination and xenophobia with a new declaration.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the UN General Assembly on Monday that its status as a nuclear-armed State was irreversible, arguing that its military capabilities were necessary to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula.

South Sudan remains committed to holding general elections in December to conclude its transition period, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Cecilia Adout Majok Adeng, told the General Assembly on Monday, calling for all sanctions, including the arms embargo to be lifted.

Sudan’s Foreign Minister addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday in place of de facto head of state General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, whose visa application was rejected by Washington.

Fairford Five bailed. Definitely not something that happens for people arrested for actual terrorism - or sign-holding vicars, either

Support for water and sanitation at the biggest camp in the world for Syrian refugees is under threat from a lack of funding – combined with the impact of climate change – the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Monday.

Aid teams trying to keep deadly Ebola disease from spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are increasingly concerned about ongoing fighting and violence that has forced thousands of people to flee a displacement camp in the vast, resource-rich east of the country.

The Security Council meets at 10am with the prospects for peace in the Middle East under strain on two fronts. In the West Bank, settler violence and settlement expansion are raising fears for a two-State solution. In Gaza, a year-old peace plan has stalled while civilian suffering continues. The meeting comes as the plan’s remaining phases, including Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal, remain unimplemented, and as the illegality of settlements under international law remains a key point of contention.

World leaders are meeting in the General Assembly to assess how far the world has come in combating racism and how far it still has to go. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the most comprehensive framework of its kind, seeks to acknowledge historical injustices, dismantle inequalities and build societies grounded in dignity, equality and justice for all.

PORTLAND, USA, September 28 (IPS) - Dozens of government-funded pension programs providing benefits to hundreds of millions of men and women face growing fiscal strain and long-term sustainability challenges. These pressures are largely driven by rapid demographic transitions, including ageing populations, declining fertility, rising life expectancy, and shrinking workforces.

NEW DEHLI, September 28 (IPS) - As a young girl, Sarada Murlidharan cringed at the thought of going to school. It was not the studies but the taunts of ‘being black’ or having dark skin, where fair skin was considered preferential, that made her unhappy.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, September 28 (IPS) - For Mohammed Dullah, recent cuts in UN food rations for Rohingya and other refugees in Bangladesh are not just spreading hunger but also forcing them to save on basic needs such as schooling and healthcare for his children.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, September 28 (IPS) - The 1944 Bretton Woods (BW) conference accepted the US demand to use the dollar to settle international financial transactions. This arrangement would require a US balance-of-payments deficit to issue enough dollars.

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 (IPS) - In the wake of the largest decline in global health financing on record, the Global Leaders Network (GLN) for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent Health convened a high-level meeting on September 22 to sustain political momentum for women and children’s health financing. The event, Financing for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health in a Time of Austerity, was co-hosted by the Governments of South Africa, Spain, and Tanzania, in addition to the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (PMMCH).

CIVICUS discusses the role of art in climate and rights struggles in the Brazilian Amazon with Tom Wheeler, executive director and co-founder of Treesistance. Treesistance is a platform operated by the Netherlands-based Sinchi Foundation that partners with Indigenous communities across four Brazilian states on cultural preservation and forest protection.

From artificial intelligence to migration, some of the forces reshaping the twenty-first century took centre stage at the UN General Assembly on Saturday. Leaders wrestled with a common dilemma: how to harness profound technological and social change without allowing it to deepen the divisions already separating countries and communities. This edition of The Takeaway distils key points from Day 5 of the annual high-level debate.

Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand warned the UN General Assembly on Saturday that the international order has entered an era of profound disruption, calling for stronger multilateral cooperation and new partnerships as major powers increasingly turn away from global economic integration.

India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar warned on Saturday that violent conflicts continue to undermine international peace and security, while countries far removed from the battlefield are being forced to pay a heavy price.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister warned on Saturday that escalating threats across the Middle East risked international peace, energy security and global trade, calling for stronger international cooperation to protect Gulf States and vital shipping routes.

Cuba’s Foreign Minister warned the UN General Assembly on Saturday that escalating military and economic pressure in Latin America and the Caribbean was threatening international law, while accusing the United States of intensifying a decades-long campaign to isolate and weaken his country.

Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, accused Western countries of destabilising the world through “force and double standards” in his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday, vowing that Moscow's “special military operation” in Ukraine would be “carried through to the end.”

From the Caribbean to the Pacific, leaders from small island States demanded climate justice, ocean protection and greater solidarity at the UN General Assembly on Friday. They warned that rising seas are already redrawing national boundaries, while the ripple effects of faraway wars are being felt on their shores. This edition of The Takeaway summarizes key points made during the fourth day of the annual high-level debate.

Countries adopted on Saturday a new global blueprint for tackling rapidly evolving forms of crime, as the UN’s largest gathering on crime prevention and criminal justice opened in Abu Dhabi with a call for stronger international cooperation.

China's Vice President, Han Zheng, urged the world to defend the postwar international order on Saturday, telling the UN General Assembly that geopolitical conflicts, widening development gaps and mounting global challenges make multilateralism more urgent than ever.

The war in Sudan has devastated the economy and agricultural production, but a UN-backed plan aims to mobilise private sector investment to help farmers return to their fields.

Africa should focus its use of technology on solving its own real challenges rather than copying the systems and priorities of other parts of the world.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah brought a stark warning from the Himalayas to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, saying catastrophic floods that killed at least 1,400 people in his country laid bare the human cost of climate change, and the failure of the international system to protect those least responsible for it.

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi, said his country aims to exert its influence as an active economic power in the region, and as a bridge for dialogue and cooperation between its peoples.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, has stressed that decisions over war and peace, and control of weapons, must rest solely with the State and its constitutional institutions.

The situation in the occupied West Bank continues to deteriorate, the UN human rights office has said, pointing to the “mass destruction” of Palestinian villages and forcible transfer of residents in Msafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills.

Climate change remains the greatest existential threat to Tuvalu, Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the UN General Assembly on Friday, warning that the pace and scale of international action are still falling far short of what vulnerable island nations need.

The UN said on Friday it remains gravely concerned by the continued deterioration of the security situation across northern Ethiopia, as fighting spreads across multiple fronts and increasingly disrupts humanitarian operations.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the UN General Assembly on Friday that any attempt by India to stop, impede or divert Pakistan’s share of the Indus River waters “will be treated as an act of war”.