News headlines in 2021, page 93

The international community must continue to support Afghanistan, the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, warning against potential boycott in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

The President of Colombia on Tuesday warned that many developing countries have increased their fiscal deficit to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, putting at risk their financial capacity to act on other priorities, such as climate change.

In his inaugural address to the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN, United States President Joseph Biden on Tuesday called for a new era of global unity against the compounding crises of COVID-19, climate change and insecurity.

MELBOURNE, Sep 21 (IPS) - COVID-19 has exposed serious vulnerabilities in how people around the world access and consume food.

One of the more alarming trends is the significant increase in the consumption of foods that may be tasty and convenient, but harm our heath. These ultra-processed products include sugary drinks, snack foods, frozen meals, packaged breads and frozen desserts.

LETHBRIDGE, Canada, Sep 21 (IPS) - Why is the UN holding a Food Systems Summit? Two issues that need discussion at the international leadership level are: Long before the Covid crisis was upon us, the number of hungry people in the world was increasing. Why? What is the cause of this disturbing trend? And, can a country really claim to be food secure, unless it produces or can buy enough food to feed its population and its people can access sufficient quantities to keep themselves fit and healthy? Disquietening questions as extreme weather begins to show the destructive power that climate change will have on the planet and its people.

This year’s International Day of Peace has been marked by the release of new stamps featuring music icon and peace campaigner, John Lennon, by the UN Postal Administration (UNPA), as the UN General Assembly High Level Week gets underway.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro highlighted this Tuesday, in New York, his country’s work on environmental preservation and the fight against climate change.  

The President of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday opened the annual General Debate, this year held as a hybrid in-person and virtual event, reflecting on the darkest days of the pandemic, “when cities were shuttered and vaccines still a dream” and how the world’s peoples “came together as never before”.  

With humanity on the edge of an abyss, and moving in the wrong direction, the world must wake up, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his keynote address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

DOMINICA, Sep 21 (IPS) - When the NDC Partnership, the alliance which helps governments to determine and achieve their climate goals, held its first-ever Global Youth Engagement Forum in July, several segments were underpinned by Jamaica’s model of engaging young people and sustaining youth interest in climate initiatives.