(UN News)* — The UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday [] released its first-ever guidelines on managing chronic low back pain – the leading cause of disability worldwide, that effects an astonishing one in 13 of us.
Notably, the guidance includes both recommendations and warnings for long-term sufferers, arguing against the use of opioid painkillers; physical therapies, such as traction; and lumbar braces and belts.
Instead, healthcare professionals are advised to develop exercise programmes; help patients educate themselves on the options and self-care strategies; and provide psychological support, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.
6 December 2023 — Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants held inside detention centres in Tripoli, Libya, have been assaulted, sexually abused, beaten, killed and systematically deprived of the most basic humane conditions, including proper access to food, water, sanitation and medical care, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Taiz, YEMEN, 6 December 2023 (UNFPA)* –“One day, when I was returning from fetching water, I collapsed on the road. I was bleeding so badly that I knew I was going to lose my baby.”
Umm Mahra was 31 years old and five months pregnant when she was forced to seek refuge with her family in a remote displacement camp in Taiz, in Yemen’s southwestern highlands.
Conflict had erupted across the country and a crippling drought took hold, exacerbating the situation for millions of people already fleeing for their lives.
(UNCCD)* —Recent drought-related data based on research in the past two years and compiled by the UN point to “an unprecedented emergency on a planetary scale, where the massive impacts of human-induced droughts are only starting to unfold.”
(UN News)* — The past decade has been confirmed the warmest ever recorded, continuing an alarming 30-year trend that the UN weather chief said on Tuesday [] is “unequivocally driven by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.”
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Secretary-General Visits Antarctica
Marked by record breaking land and ocean temperatures, the decade between 2011-2020 saw continued rising concentrations of greenhouse gasses that “turbo charged” dramatic glacier loss and sea-level rise, according to a new report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Industry influx escalates call to protect talks from Big Polluters
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LONDON 5th December 2023:At least 2456 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to the COP28 summit in Dubai, signalling an unprecedented presence at crucial climate talks from representatives of some of the world’s biggest polluters, according to a new analysis from theKick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday [] sent a strong message to the oil and gas industry: the pledges made at COP28 in Dubai fall well short of what’s needed to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis.
As the fourth day of this year’s UN climate conference got underway, the UN chief stated: “The fossil fuel industry is finally starting to wake up, but the promises made clearly fall short of what is required.”
LONDON, Dec 4 2023 (IPS)* – The Netherlands is the latest country to lurch to the right amid the global cost of living crisis. Its November election saw maverick far-right populist Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) come first. A hardline Islamophobe who’s called for the Quran to be banned could be the next prime minister.
(UN News)* — A new report by the UN team combatting desertification reveals alarming trends over the past two years which have resulted in an unprecedented emergency due to human-induced droughts.
The Global Drought Snapshot report, released by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on Friday [], coinciding with COP 28, paint a grim picture of the scale of lives and livelihoods lost to droughts.
Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, emphasized the urgency of the situation. “Unlike other disasters that attract media attention, droughts happen silently, often going unnoticed and failing to provoke an immediate public and political response,” he said.