By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, US, Jul 30 2025 – Recent weeks have seen an increase in extreme weather events. From heat waves occurring across the Midwest states to flash flooding in Texas, Maryland, and New York.

Although these weather events have had significant and measurable impacts on humans, rarely making headlines are the detrimental impacts these events have on agriculture, and that lack of coverage needs to change.

Most concerning is the noticeable gap in dialogue and focused attention by researchers, policy makers and other key stakeholders in agricultural crop production and food systems, a gap that urgently needs to change as well.

It’s time for researchers, policy makers, governments, media, and stakeholders across agriculture and food systems to engage more urgently in how these events affect not just humans, but also how they detrimentally impact agricultural crops and the microbial communities that support soils and agricultural crops health

Heat and flooding impact the crops such as corn, wheat, rice, and vegetable crops including tomato that we depend on to meet food and nutritional security needs.

These impacts can range from changes in growth patterns, acres of crops decimated to tons of vegetables unsellable due to potential contamination by flooding waters. All these losses also have a dollar value associated with them.

For example, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture estimated crop-related flooding damage in Arkansas in 2025, to be $78.9 million. 

Indeed, recent research coming from research institutions and universities across United States universities has demonstrated that these events detrimentally affect agricultural crop growth and production, resulting in reduced yields and agricultural crop revenue, while driving up prices and crop insurance payments.

Heatwaves and flooding also impact plant physiology and metabolism, disrupting the life-sustaining processes of plants, including photosynthesis, respiration, the antioxidant defense system, and reactive oxygen species scavenging. These changes hinder plant growth and development, leading to reduced crop productivity and yield losses.

Ultimately, farmers lose their crops and the revenue they get from farming, and these losses are passed on to consumers through increased prices. For example, according to The American Farm Bureau Federations, in 2024, farmers lost $20.3 billion to weather disasters including flooding and heat waves.

Extreme weather also affects the multitude of belowground microbes that underpin the health of soil, its functions, health, and quality, as well as the soil microbiomes that govern soil and plant health and key biogeochemical processes, including nutrient and water cycling. Both beneficial and pathogenic microbes are impacted by flooding.  

Flooding, for example, has been reported to impact soil microbial communities negatively, depleting beneficial soil microbes, and affecting other beneficial soil-dwelling organisms, such as earthworms.

And because belowground processes are tightly linked and interconnected with aboveground processes, changes in the health and productivity of crops can be impacted by changes in belowground dwelling organisms.

Importantly, researchers are rising to the challenge of finding solutions to mitigate the trail of damage that these extreme events have on agricultural crops and production systems both during and after these events have happened.

Take the case of flooding; emerging research reveals that applying nitrogen-based fertilizers immediately after a flooding event can help rescue plants from the detrimental impacts of flooding.

Disturbingly, however, although nitrogen fertilizer can help mitigate flooding impacts, its use is not sustainable due to its negative impacts on ecosystems, including polluting groundwater and streams, while contributing to the greenhouse effect. Therefore, researchers must push the boundaries beyond nitrogen.

Fortunately, the agricultural market is filled with sustainable bioproducts, including biostimulants and microbial inoculants. These products, that contain live microorganisms such as mycorrhizal fungi, nitrogen-fixing bacteria or other groups of beneficial microbes, have potential in mitigating the detrimental impacts that extreme weather events have on crops, and their investigation should be considered.

Excitingly, this is beginning to happen. For example, a recent study revealed that foliar spraying tomato plants with microbes improved their tolerance against acute heat wave stress. In addition, review papers are being published that detail what we currently know, while outlining future research questions to explore further.

Moving into the future, this line of research needs to be funded so that the excitement in using these products as well as the challenges that come along with using biostimulants including a lack of regulation and unified terminology and the growing concerns that introduced microorganisms could mutate as they adapt to environments can be addressed. The use of biostumulants is expected to keep growing, with global market estimated to reach USD 7.84 billion by 2030.

Notably, there is a need to think of long-term solutions. Thankfully, regenerative agriculture approaches, including the use of cover crops, can be utilized. Further, recent research is reaffirming this and has revealed that cover crops can mitigate the effects of flooding, thus enhancing resilience to extreme weather events.

Cover crops are plants that are primarily grown to provide several benefits including improving water infiltration, soil health and structure, and controlling erosion. These crops can be important long-term tools to mitigate extreme weather events including mitigating flooding risks by absorbing excess soil water while improving soil physical properties. 

Although the use of cover crops continues to gain traction in the United States, rising by 17% between 2017 and 2022, according to recent satellite-based research from that analyzed 100, 000 fields, their adoption and use can pose some challenges and potential drawbacks that continue to warrant more research and consideration.

Future projections indicate that many extreme weather events including flooding will continue to increase in both intensity and frequency.

It’s time for researchers, policy makers, governments, media, and stakeholders across agriculture and food systems to engage more urgently in how these events affect not just humans, but also how they detrimentally impact agricultural crops and the microbial communities that support soils and agricultural crops health.

By acknowledging and documenting these impacts through research, we can begin to develop sustainable, science driven solutions, both short and long term.  The time is now.

Esther Ngumbi, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, African American Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

By Tanka Dhakal
THE HAGUE, Jul 30 2025 – Legal minds in international law are trying to interpret the scope and impact of the landmark advisory opinion on climate change by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where it said that states have a duty to prevent significant harm to the environment.

The court ruling says that the states have a responsibility to cooperate internationally to prevent the impact of climate change. It didn’t directly link climate change and the health crisis but recognized the health aspect through the “right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.” Organizations advocating for the health-related actions in the climate change discussion are saying the court opinion affirmed “climate crisis as health crisis.”

Yamide Dagnet, Senior Vice President, International The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), noted the advisory opinion made three things clear.

• All countries have an obligation to address climate change under international and customary laws, beyond their commitments under the Paris Agreement.
•  It provides legal leverage to seek reparations from major emitters, including from the fossil fuel industry.
• Small islands will keep their statehood if their land disappears due to sea level rise—as illustrated by the Rising Nation Initiative, Global Centre for Climate Mobility—thus boosting their efforts to preserve their sovereignty, rights, and cultural heritage with dignity.

Dr Jeni Miller, Executive Director at the Global Climate and Health Alliance said the court has delivered a historic affirmation that the climate crisis is a health crisis-and failure to act is a failure to protect life

“This ruling confirms that governments and corporations have a legal duty to prevent further harm, uphold the right to health, and safeguard future generations,” she said in a statement. “From deadly heat and toxic air to disease and displacement, the Court’s message is clear-human health is not collateral damage.”

The ICJ issued its ruling on July 23 in response to a United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution led by Vanuatu, the small island nation in the Pacific, which knocked on the ICJ’s door asking for an advisory opinion on the obligation of the states to address climate change and its legal consequences.

Following a long hearing last December, the ICJ delivered its first opinion on climate change. “The case was unlike any that have previously come before the court,” President of the International Court of Justice Judge Yuji Iwasawa said while reading the court’s unanimous advisory opinion. “This case was not simply a legal problem but concerned an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.”

Pivotal moment for climate and health justice

While addressing planetary health, the court laid out the case for the impact of human-induced climate change and its impact on growing health concerns. In its ruling the court took note of participants discussing the existence of a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

During the hearing of the case in December Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus testified to the court and said climate change is fundamentally a health crisis. “The climate crisis is among the most significant health challenges facing humanity today,” he said during his testimony to the court.

Experts believe that health workers and advocates now have powerful legal backing to demand bold, science-based climate action rooted in justice. They are still reviewing the court’s opinion to make a more nuanced analysis and said it marks a pivotal moment for climate and health justice. Shweta Narayan, Campaign lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said the ruling affirms the urgency of comprehensive, rights-based action that addresses both immediate health harms and the root causes of the crisis.

“This represents a major step forward in reframing the climate crisis as fundamentally a health crisis-and in mobilizing the legal, scientific, and political tools needed to respond,” she adds.

“This ruling strengthens the moral mandate to place health at the center of climate negotiations, including in adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance frameworks.”

The court used the human rights approach to address the health aspect of climate change in its ruling. In a rapid legal analysis, Vanuatu, who led the campaign for the opinion, also welcomed the ruling.

“The opinion integrates international human rights law, identifying the rights to life, health, an adequate standard of living, and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as directly threatened by climate change,” the Vanuatu Climate Justice Program said in a statement. “It affirms that environmental protection is a precondition for their enjoyment.”

Dagnet added that it demonstrated the power of activism.

“The students of Vanuatu dared to dream big and challenge the status quo, and it paid off with what could end up being one of the most important milestones in the global climate fight. I am thrilled at the landmark International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision to validate some of the most ambitious climate priorities championed by vulnerable states over the last 50 years.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jul 30 2025 – “The last thing she asked for was a sip of water,” recalled Najma Maheshwari, referring to 19-year-old Shanti, a newlywed who died last week after brutal sexual violence allegedly inflicted by her husband, who is now in custody.

“Then she closed her eyes and never opened them again,” she said quietly, her voice steeped in sadness.

Najma, a social activist from Shanti’s neighborhood, accompanied her brother Sayon to the government-run Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Trauma Centre. “Her insides were torn, she was bleeding profusely from her anus and writhing in pain. Hospital visitors urged us to move the gurney outside, complaining the stench was unbearable.

“While cleaning her, medics removed worms from her gut—her injuries were that severe. I’ve seen much in my work, but never such horror or pain,” Najma told IPS by phone from her home in Lyari, an informal settlement in Karachi.

Najma Maheshwari, the social activist who was with Shanti when she died.

After two weeks at the hospital and a day trip to attend Shanti’s funeral in her village, 38-year-old Najma—mother of four—was deeply shaken. “I can’t eat, and the indescribable stench still haunts me,” she said.

According to the complaint lodged by Sayon with the police, Shanti’s husband, Ashok Mohan, had “inserted a metal pipe” followed by his “hand and arm” in her anus two days after her marriage. Not content, he bit her on her breasts and neck and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the act to anyone.

“They were engaged for two years before we married her off; she was very happy during the celebrations,” recalled Sonya, Shanti’s sister-in-law, adding the groom, 25, lived just a few lanes away and seemed like a good match.

The sexual violence, just three days after her marriage, led Shanti to bleed heavily from the anus. When the bleeding wouldn’t stop, her in-laws took her to two health facilities, but when the doctors gave up, they brought her home.

“We went to see her… she lay motionless, and her mother-in-law claimed it was just diarrhea and her period, so we left, not realizing how serious it was,” said Sonya.

Two weeks later, as Shanti’s condition worsened, her in-laws called her brother. Seeing her state, he rushed her to the hospital—but it was too late.

“There was clear evidence of anal trauma caused by sexual violence,” confirmed Dr. Summaiya Sayed, Karachi’s chief police surgeon, saying Shanti was brought in “comatose” and placed on a ventilator. Her injuries worsened as she continued passing stool, leading to her death three weeks later.

“This is a clear-cut case of marital rape,” said Syeda Bushra, a lawyer at Karachi-based Legal Aid Society, which provides free legal aid. She has handled sexual violence cases for nearly a decade.

While no specific law currently defines marital rape, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act of 2013 holds husbands accountable as violators.

“Though the law may not explicitly mention marital rape, its broadened definition under Section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code allows prosecution of husbands,” explained Bushra.

This marks a significant shift from Section 375 of the PPC, which previously exempted marital sex—an exemption removed in 2006 by the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act.

Bushra described marital rape as “undeniably a form of domestic abuse” but noted it remains rarely reported. Many women choose divorce instead, as marital rape is still taboo and often not even recognized as such.

Government surveys reveal grim realities: the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) reported that 47 percent of respondents in 2012–2013 considered wife-beating justifiable—a figure that only slightly declined to 43 percent by 2017–2018. The World Economic Forum’s 2023 data paints an even darker picture, showing that 85 percent of married women in Pakistan experience physical or sexual violence—far higher than Bangladesh’s 53 percent and India’s 29 percent.

Islamabad-based gender and governance expert Fauzia Yazdani highlights how religious texts and traditions are often deliberately misinterpreted to justify abuse. Supporting Yazdani’s view, lawyer Bushra notes that women brave enough to seek justice frequently face defense attorneys citing selective Quranic verses to defend their husbands. “It’s not just disturbing—it’s deeply problematic,” Bushra said.

While activists challenge these harmful narratives, legal experts push for accountability within the justice system.
“The cruelty of the act that led to Shanti’s death means her husband may face charges of both rape and murder, setting a vital precedent for criminalizing marital rape,” said Bahzad Akbar, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society who has specialized in gender-based violence cases for four years.

In 2022, Akbar secured Sindh’s first-ever marital rape conviction, where the husband was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and fined Rs 30,000 (USD 106) for sodomy. But it took two years for the verdict.

Najma (center), Sonya (wearing yellow on Najma’s left), and their brother (on Najma’s right) were sitting on the pavement outside the trauma center where Shanti was fighting for her life. Credit: Seema Maheshwari

Today, with the 2021 Anti-Rape Act having established special courts, Akbar is hopeful for a swift trial and justice in Shanti’s case.

“Shanti’s case will be a test for society,” he said, “Offering hope to women enduring sexual abuse in marriage that justice is possible.”

Tragically, Shanti’s case did not spark widespread outrage.

“That’s because she was a woman, and in this society, women are seen as disposable,” explained Yazdani.

According to her, gender-based violence is rarely recognized as a crime in Pakistan’s collective mindset, which is why it remains inadequately addressed within institutions.

“There’s still no official definition for misogyny and patriarchy; there are no local terms capture these concepts,” she said, holding the government, the judiciary, the police, the country’s opinion makers, and even independent oversight bodies responsible for failing the Pakistani women “over and over again.”

This disconnect between societal attitudes and institutional responses, she argued, creates a void that even robust laws struggle to bridge.

Legal experts acknowledge that while Pakistan has strong laws protecting women, enforcement remains weak.

“When laws are made in a social vacuum, what do you expect; they will remain ineffective,” observed Yazdani.

That disconnect between law and lived reality is starkly visible in the experiences shared by healthcare professionals.

“I meet smart, accomplished women who still believe they have no right to refuse their husbands. Many see sex without consent as their marital duty,” said Dr. Azra Ahsan, a senior gynecologist and obstetrician based in Karachi.

After years of hearing young, married women quietly confide their pain—often long after the damage was done—Dr. Ahsan became convinced that sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education is crucial to raising awareness about reproductive health, including marital rape.

To fill this gap, she and a group of like-minded doctors at the Association for Mothers and Newborns (AMAN)*—the implementation arm of Pakistan’s National Committee for Maternal and Neonatal Health—developed Bakhabar Noujawan (Informed Youth), an online SRH program endorsed by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, launched in 2023.

“We’re trying to introduce it in colleges, but convincing faculty is an uphill battle—they first need to grasp the course’s importance,” she said.

Covering over two dozen culturally sensitive topics—from premarital counselling, child and cousin marriage, domestic violence, STIs, to teenage pregnancy—the programme doesn’t shy away from tough conversations. “We’re now developing a module on marital rape,” says Ahsan, head of AMAN. “The first draft is nearly complete.”

Alongside SRH education, Sayed emphasized the need for mental health and emotional wellness programs.

“Too many young people carry the trauma of childhood sexual abuse,” she said. “As they grow, that buried pain can manifest in troubling ways—some develop sadistic or masochistic behaviors, especially when exposed to unchecked pornography. It doesn’t heal them; it deepens the harm.”

Lawyer Akbar, who has handled nearly two dozen child sexual abuse cases over the past four years, said 70% involved incest. At Karachi’s three medicolegal centers, Sayed reports 4–8 sexual violence cases daily, yet only three alleged marital rape cases were recorded in 2024—underscoring severe underreporting.

Experts say this silence stems from deeply entrenched norms conditioning women to endure abuse rather than speak out.

“Even today, parents tell their daughters at marriage, ‘Your husband’s home is your final home—you should only leave it in death’,” said Yazdani, adding that Pakistani society remains bound by social mores that consistently deny women their rights. “She is compartmentalized and viewed only through the lens of relationships, her duty simply to obey the men around her—father, brother, husband, even her son.”

* The writer serves on the executive committee of this nonprofit in a voluntary capacity but had no part in the development of the SRH course.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Jennifer Xin-Tsu Lin Levine
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 30 2025 – As sectarian violence rises in Syria, the number of displaced people has climbed exponentially since Syrian forces joined clashes between the Druze and Bedouin groups in the Sweida region.

Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric reported in the daily press briefing this Wednesday, “More than 145,000 people have now been displaced due to hostilities in the Suweida governorate.” This marks a rise of over 50,000 people since Monday, when the spokesperson reported 93,000 displaced.

The conflict originated as a dispute between the Druze and Bedouin, two minorities in southern Syria. In Sweida, a Druze-majority city, armed government forces were deployed to quell the violence and regain control of local government structures primarily led by Druze people.

However, after Israel bombed Damascus, citing harms against Druze civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined a new plan to demilitarize Syrian territory from “south of Damascus and the Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain.”

This decision was widely criticized by global actors, including Secretary-General António Guterres, who called it “essential that these attacks stop and that Israel respect Syria’s sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and independence.”

Israel is just one of the many countries involved in Syria’s politics and violence. During the Syrian civil war, a period of general pro-democracy political uprising in the Middle East, countries like Iran and Russia backed the current regime in efforts to prevent further Western influence. Supporting various rebel groups were Turkey, the United States, and Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, each with their own strategic and ideological goals.

As a result, Syria has become a battleground not only for internal factions but also for foreign powers vying for regional influence—often with devastating consequences for the civilian population.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 15.8 million people across Syria were in need of humanitarian assistance as of March 2025, the highest number recorded since the conflict began in 2011. The escalating violence in Sweida further intensifies the crisis and strains an already overstretched aid network.

Medical services have been especially hard-hit. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that only 57 percent of hospitals and 37 percent of primary healthcare centers are operating at full capacity, many others struggling due to damaged infrastructure, medicine shortages and the departure of medical personnel.

According to UNDP assessments, there is only one doctor per 2,000 people due to migration over the past decades. Due to the sharp decline in public health spending, these flaws in healthcare infrastructure are particularly glaring in a time when violence has worsened.

However, problems in Syrian infrastructure extend beyond the immediate crisis. UNDP also reported that 30 percent to 50 percent of schools are out of service, damaged, destroyed or repurposed due to war-related destruction or lack of maintenance. Schools that are still operational often do not receive state funding for basic utilities like water, electricity, or heating.

UNICEF has raised alarms about the impact of the conflict on children. The agency estimates that over 2.4 million children are out of school, many of them having been displaced multiple times.

“Years of war and violence have shattered the lives of Syria’s children, with many enduring a lifetime of hardship,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. This has caused stagnation in Syria’s growth—without children to help rebuild infrastructure in education and healthcare, the system remains weakened.

Due to such precarious federal institutions, humanitarian access has similarly lessened. In past years, the UN Security Council has been unable to renew critical cross-border aid mechanisms due to vetoes from permanent members, leaving much of the aid delivery dependent on unstable domestic routes.

In a recent Geneva press briefing, it was confirmed that humanitarian convoys have been delayed or blocked from reaching Sweida and Daraa due to active fighting and lack of security guarantees.

As the power vacuum deepens in Syria, with the central government’s grip weakening and local militias and foreign actors carving out zones of influence, civilians are increasingly left without protection or basic services. The latest violence in Sweida illustrates the high cost of this fragmentation: an already fragile region now overwhelmed by displacement, cut off from aid, and exposed to indiscriminate attacks.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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