(UN News)* — War in Sudan has devastated towns and cities across the country and pushed the healthcare system to collapse, just as cases of cholera and dengue fever are surging and hunger levels remain “above the famine threshold”, humanitarians have warned.
In an alert from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, it reported more than 28,000 cases of cholera and 836 deaths in 11 states between 22 July and 28 October.
KAMPALA, Uganda / NEW JERSEY, USA, Nov 5 2024 (IPS)* – Africa has had a terrible record dealing with extreme poverty.
The late Adebayo Adedeji, the legendary head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), campaigned vigorously but unsuccessfully in the 1980s against the IMF and World Bank-imposed structural adjustment programmes, contending that these contributed to poverty’s increase.
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Credit: African Union
The continent’s economic growth plummeted rapidly in that decade by an average of 2.5 per cent annually, hitting the already poor the hardest.
Hard as it is to believe, things have gotten much worse since then for the poor.
TUCSON, Arizona, US, Nov 4 2024 (IPS)* – A small incident in the mounting mayhem of the 2024 elections crystalized the state of the dark art of politics in these United States. In Springfield, Ohio, a small midwestern industrial city, a woman named Anna Kilgore noticed that her cat, Miss Sassy, had been missing for a few days. Kilgore notified the police that she feared her kitty might have been caught and eaten by the Haitian immigrants who lived next door.
Artist’s conception of Miss Sassy chilling at the day spa (Actually, our kitten Brinca chilling at the day spa). Photo: Peter Costantini
A few days later, Miss Sassy showed up in Kilgore’s basement, uneaten. The woman, to her credit, apologized to her neighbors.
24 Oct 2024 – It’s been a long time but worth remembering, if you can, that when the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, the whole world watched in horror.
Edward J. Curtin
The events of that day were repeated on television over and over and over again, to the point where they became afterimages lodged in people’s minds.
As a result, although the buildings were not brought down by the impact of planes (no plane hit Building 7) but by explosives planted in the buildings (see this and this, among extensive evidence), most people thought otherwise, just as they thought that the subsequent linked anthrax attacks were directed by Osama bin Laden when they were eventually proven to have originated from a U.S. military lab (thus an inside job), and, as a result of a massive Bush administration/corporate media propaganda campaign, most Americans supported the invasion of Afghanistan, the subsequent invasion of Iraq, and decades of endless wars that continue to this day, bringing us to the edge of nuclear war with Iran and Russia.
(UN News)* — Attacks on a clinic and UN staff member were reported during a resumed polio vaccine campaign in besieged northern Gaza, Israeli forces continued airstrikes on Lebanon on Sunday and in Yemen, a new water project launched a “lifeline” for populations fleeing conflict, with updates from Syria.
(UN News)* — South Sudan is facing a spiralling humanitarian crisis with hunger and cholera cases escalating in several parts of the country. UN agencies on Friday [] called for more international support and interventions to ease the widespread suffering.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have raised the alarm over worsening hunger, malnutrition, and disease outbreaks in the world’s youngest nation.
(UN News)* — The UN and its global partners will grapple with the massive loss of animal and plant species and how to avoid further extinction at a major conference beginning 23 January [Report dated 22 January 2024].
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UNEP/NOOR/Kadir van Lohuize | An underwater sculpture at Molinere Bay, in the Marine Protected Area of Grenada.
Here’s a primer on what exactly biodiversity is and how the UN can help support efforts to enable nature to survive and thrive.
In simple terms, biodiversity refers to all types of life on Earth. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) describes it as “the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi”.
(UN News)* — Countries from around the world are meeting in the Colombian city of Cali, to discuss how best to protect biological diversity and develop a lasting blueprint that will allow humankind to live in harmony with nature.
CALI, Columbia, Nov 3 2024 (IPS)* –The curtains fell on the 16th Conference of the Parties of UN Biodiversity (COP16) on Sunday without any formal closing. In a voice message, David Ainsworth, the Communications Director of the UNCBD, confirmed that the COP was suspended due to a lack of quorum in the plenary and would be resumed sometime later.
An image of an indigenous woman at the Plenary in session at COP16 which took a historic decision on the indigenous peoples and local communities. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
Rome, 31 October 2024(FAO/WFP)*– Acute food insecurity is set to increase in both magnitude and severity across 22 countries and territories, according to a new United Nations report.
UNEP/NOOR/Kadir van Lohuize | An underwater sculpture at Molinere Bay, in the Marine Protected Area of Grenada.
Livestock-holding farmers and herders receive animal fodder distributed by FAO to support local food production in Rafah, Gaza Strip. ©FAO/Yousef Alrozzi
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 