News headlines in August 2021, page 5

HAMILTON, Canada, Aug 26 (IPS) - Understanding the scale and intensity of the COVID-19 virus and its emerging variantspredicting the pandemic’s direction, and developing and refining associated management response options are challenges likely to confront public-health officials and national governments worldwide well into the future.

A military confrontation that started 10 months ago in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is spreading, with serious political, economic and humanitarian implications for the country and the broader region, the Secretary-General warned the Security Council on Thursday.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is stepping up ongoing support to Haitians who are now facing destroyed homes, lost livelihoods and little or no access to food in the wake of the 14 August earthquake, the UN agency reported on Thursday.   

LA PAZ, Mexico, Aug 26 (IPS) - At “The Lieutenant” (“El Teniente”) fishing site, near La Paz (Baja California Sur’s capital) the boats go by and come in all morning. To chase down sharks, fishers make their way to the Holy Spirit island, some 30 km away from La Paz. They unload the products that will be sold at the city’s fish markets.

LA PAZ, Mexico, Aug 26 (IPS) - The Mexican fisherman Tomás Valencia, aged 70, remembers that around 30 years ago he used to catch a lot of sharks.

Secretary-General António Guterres condemned on Thursday the terror attacks around Kabul airport in Afghanistan and expressed his support for both the injured and the families of those who have been killed. 

The UN has verified 266,000 cases of grave violations against children in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America over the past 16 years, two top UN officials said on Thursday – marking 25 years since the Organization released a groundbreaking report on the issue.

Aug 26 (IPS) - As the international community prepares for the landmark United Nations Food Systems Summit, a pivotal gathering as part of a global goal to tackle food insecurity, hunger, biodiversity loss, and climate change through sustainable food production, Caribbean youth say the successful transformation of food systems must include young innovators.

Although the African Region was certified free of wild poliovirus one year ago, after four years without a case, outbreaks of a vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) is spreading throughout communities where too few children have received the polio vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

The UN Human Rights Committee concluded on Thursday that the trials of a former Spanish in two major political cases were arbitrary and did not comply with the principles of judicial independence and impartiality.