(UN News)* —Nearly a quarter of all adolescent girls who have been in a relationship – close to 19 million – will have experienced intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new analysis on Monday [].
The study, published in the medical journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, draws on existing data and provides the first detailed examination of the prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence faced by girls aged 15-19 years who have been in intimate relationships.
Almost 16 per cent, or one in six, were affected in the past year.
(UN News)* — In a bid to prevent a polio epidemic in Gaza, UN humanitarians on Tuesday [] repeated continuing international calls for a ceasefire to allow a mass vaccination campaign to get underway.
Almost 10 months of war and intense Israeli bombardment have shattered healthcare in Gaza and disrupted routine inoculation rounds for youngsters, leaving them exposed to a range of preventable diseases including polio, which the UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed had been identified last month in several sewage samples taken from Gaza.
LIMA, Jul 26 2024 (IPS)* – The invasion of lands inhabited by Amazon indigenous communities is growing in Peru, due to drug trafficking mafias that are expanding coca crops to produce and export cocaine, while deforestation and insecurity for the native populations and their advocates are increasing | En español
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Members of the indigenous guard of the native community of Puerto Nuevo, of the Amazonian Kakataibo people, located in the central-eastern jungle of Peru. Credit: Courtesy of Marcelo Odicio
BELÉM, Brazil, Jul 28 2024 (IPS)* – The decade-and-a-half-long battle for life in the so-called Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Xingu river, a stretch of the river dewatered by the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant in the Brazilian Amazon, has a possible solution, albeit a partial one. | En español
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An igapó, a flood-prone wooded area on the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu River, with fruit on the dry ground. This is where the piracema, or fish reproduction, was supposed to take place, frustrated by the scarcity of water released by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on this stretch of the river in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The fruits are lost and stop feeding the fish by falling on the ground and not in the water. Credit: Mati / VGX
(UN News)* —Senior UN officials on Friday [] reiterated the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, and escalating threat to aid workers, urging immediate action prevent further deterioration.
Muhannad Hadi, Deputy UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and Antonia De Meo, Deputy Commissioner-General of the UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, briefed the Security Council on the dire situation.
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2024 (IPS)* – “The world must rise to the challenge of rising temperatures,” says the UN Secretary-General as he launches a call to action on extreme heat and its impact on society and the environment.
Extreme heat has caused hundreds of deaths and has many other implications. This is an image from Dahanu, Maharashtra. Credit: 350/flickr
24 July 2024 (WMO)* — The Earth has just experienced its warmest day in recent history, according to one of the datasets that the WMO uses to monitor the Earth’s climate, namely the ERA5 dataset from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Workplace exposures to excessive heat in Africa were above the global average, affecting 92.9 per cent of the workforce.
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GENEVA, 25 July 2024 (ILO)* –A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Heat at work: Implications for safety and health, warns that more workers are being exposed to heat stress worldwide.
The new data reveals that regions previously unaccustomed to extreme heat will face increased risks, while workers in already hot climates will confront ever more dangerous conditions.
(UN News)* —The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed on Wednesday [] for an immediate improvement in the security situation in Gaza, where dangerous operating conditions and attacks against humanitarian workers continue to hamper aid delivery to communities in need.
“Simply put – we do not have the necessary conditions in the Gaza Strip for a robust humanitarian response,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement issued in the wake of an attack on one of the agency’s vehicles and the latest Israeli evacuation order in Khan Younis.
Rio de Janeiro, 24 July 2024 (FAO)* –Around 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven people globally and one in five in Africa, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report published today [24 July 2024] by five United Nations specialized agencies.