News headlines in 2022, page 278

The massive volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga followed by another earthquake and aftershocks just days afterwards, has highlighted once again the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a meeting this week convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has heard.

KARACHI, Feb 02 (IPS) - “It was like a heavy burden had been lifted, and I could breathe easier,” said Irum Khan, a polio worker, recalling the cloudy, gloomy, winter morning of January 28, 2022, when her supervisor announced Pakistan had not reported a single case of a child afflicted with polio since January 27, 2021, when the last time a polio case was reported from the province of Balochistan.

A new UN partnership announced on Wednesday aims to raise awareness about the environmental and health impacts of microplastics in cigarette butts, the most discarded waste item worldwide. 

More than two years since COVID-19 began disrupting office life around the world, crucial changes are needed to safeguard health while teleworking, two UN agencies said on Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Feb 02 (IPS) - Hidden in plain sight, the extreme hypocrisy of the U.S. position on NATO and Ukraine cries out for journalistic coverage and open debate in the USA’s major media outlets. But those outlets, with rare exceptions, have gone into virtually Orwellian mode, only allowing elaboration on the theme of America good, Russia bad.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 02 (IPS) - People living in Jardim Pantanal, a low-income neighborhood on the east side of the Brazilian megalopolis of São Paulo, suffer floods every southern hemisphere summer. Many residents remember the three months their streets and homes were under water in late 2009 and early 2010.

SEATTLE, USA, Feb 01 (IPS) - The specters of slave patrols and Ku Klux Klan night riders haunted the viral videos. They showed cowboy-hatted Border Patrol agents on horseback insulting and threatening Haitian families with children as they crossed the Rio Grande into Texas. The outrage reverberated around the world and inside the Beltway. But the story soon disappeared from the news cycle.

For the first time, the United Nations on Wednesday celebrates World Wetlands Day, recognizing that these fragile ecosystems make a crucial contribution to biodiversity, climate mitigation, freshwater availability, and economic resilience.

The launch of a possible intermediate-range ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) drew condemnation from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday.

Following a verdict in the case of the brutal murder of two its experts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) nearly five years ago, the UN on Tuesday urged authorities to uphold their moratorium on the death penalty.