UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 2024 (IPS)* – The United Nations, over the last year, has been relentlessly promoting the upcoming Summit of the Future – scheduled for September 22-23—as a landmark event.
And rightly so.
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But, surprisingly, the provisional list of speakers, released early this week, reflects notable absentees for a high-level summit– the five permanent members (P5) of the Security Council — whose representatives do not include any head of state (HS) or head of government (HG).
(UN News)* —The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday [] voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution that demands that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider | Result of the General Assembly vote on a draft resolution on the ICJ advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
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With a recorded vote of 124 nations in favour, 14 against, and 43 abstentions, the resolution calls for Israel to comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from occupied land, and dismantle parts of the separation wall it constructed inside the occupied West Bank.
NAIROBI, Sep 18 2024 (IPS) –A report examining corporate capture of public finance is accusing industries fueling the climate crisis, including fossil fuel ones, of draining public funds in the Global South, singling them out for squeezing out of governments USD 700 billion in public subsidies each year.
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Joseph Loree, who lives in the oil-rich Lokichar area of Turkana in northern Kenya, keeps a few goats due to frequent droughts. Governments in the Global South are spending billions of dollars subsidising industries harming the climate, such as the one in Lokichar. Credit: Maina Waruru/IPS
Washington’s military interventions are not just wars on people — they’re also wars on the planet’s climate.
U.S. combat soldier in the rubble at one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad, 24 Apr 2003. (U.S. Air Force, Cherie A. Thurlby, National Archivers, Public domain)
13 Sep 2024 – This week marks 23 years since George W. Bush declared a U.S.-led “war on terror” and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are still suffering its consequences.
(UN News)* — Some of the world’s poorest countries spend more on debt repayments than health, education and infrastructure combined, severely hampering their chances of developing their economies.
The UN is calling for an overhaul of the entire international financial system, to reduce inequality and improve people’s lives.
“The international financial architecture, crafted in 1945 after the Second World War, is undergoing a stress test of historic proportions – and it is failing that test”, argues UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a 2023 policy brief.
NEW YORK, 16 September 2024 (UNICEF)* – UNICEF has launched an appeal for US$58.8 million to address the rising mpox crisis across six African countries where children are most affected.
UNICEF/UNI633481/Mazinge
Though child deaths are currently confined to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the data underscores their vulnerability, as UNICEF works to scale up prevention and response efforts across the region.
(UNEP)* — Air pollution costs the global economy a staggering US$8.1 trillion every year, or 6.1 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product.
Credit: UNEP
Air pollution comes from myriad sources and disproportionately affects the marginalized, including women, children and the elderly. Its impact crosses borders, harming public health, the economy and the environment.
13 September 2024 (WMO)* — The extended streak of extraordinarily high temperatures has continued, and the year so far has been the warmest on record for the globe, according to three leading international datasets.
(UN News)* — Social protection is essential to safeguard people from shocks, but half the world is without any coverage, including over 90 per cent of people living in climate-vulnerable countries, according to a new report released on Thursday [] by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
FAR NORTH REGION, Cameroon, 11 September 2024(UNFPA)* -–As Djamila* clutched her pregnant belly, the floodwaters rose around her, threatening to engulf the fragile canoe she had escaped in.
A pregnant woman is stranded by her house amid recent flooding in Cameroon’s Far North region. Credit: UNFPA Cameroon / Samuel Sawalda
“The water was everywhere,” she told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. “I was so scared – not just for myself, but for my babies. Every minute felt like an eternity.”
At 18, this was her first pregnancy – and she was expecting twins.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 