(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.
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.
By Daniel Johnson and Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer
(UN News)* —Gazans uprooted by the Israeli military’s latest evacuation orders have fled their shelters and homes “running for their lives”, with barely any belongings and little idea where they will end up, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday [].
In Khan Younis, the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) reported witnessing “thousands of people fleeing” westwards as part of the exodus from the enclave’s southern city amid ongoing hostilities, leaving children traumatized and crying uncontrollably.
(UN News)* — Soaring summer temperatures in Europe and Central Asia are killing nearly 400 children a year according to new analysis of the latest available data by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released on Wednesday [].
UNICEF revealed that 377 children died in 2021 based on data from 23 countries across the vast region. Heat-related illnesses claimed the lives of half of those vulnerable youngsters in the first year of their lives.
.jpg?sfvrsn=2ee86607_9 "Hunger numbers stubbornly high for three consecutive years as global crises deepen: UN report")
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 