News headlines in 2023, page 130

SYDNEY, Jul 28 (IPS) - The likelihood of further confrontations remains high following a major Israeli military assault on an impoverished camp of more than 23,500 Palestinian refugees in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank earlier this month. The landlocked Palestinian territory, located between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east, has been illegally occupied, according to international law, following the invasion by Israel 56 years ago.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 28 (IPS) - “Humanity is in the hot seat today,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists as the world confronted official data confirming that July 2023 is the hottest month ever recorded in human history.

WASHINGTON DC, Jul 28 (IPS) - The Biden administration’s decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, a weapon widely banned for the inherent dangers they pose to non-combatants, is risky.

Russia has not offered any free grain to the UN food relief agency so far, and its policy of buying supplies from Ukraine has been based on its competitive price and quality, a senior WFP official said on Friday.

Heads of UN peacekeeping forces on Thursday highlighted the work of ‘blue helmets’ in some of the most challenging environments, protecting those in need not only from war and terror but also increasingly from natural disasters and disinformation.

Humanitarian operations, development support and peace programmes in Niger continue in the wake of the military coup this week, the top UN official in the country said on Friday in a briefing to journalists in New York.

The Assistant High Commissioner for Protection with the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Gillian Triggs, concluded a four-day visit to Greece on Friday, where she addressed several critical issues concerning refugees and asylum-seekers in the country.

Five prisoners were executed in Kuwait and two in Singapore this week, including the first Singaporean woman to be executed in nearly 20 years, prompting the UN human rights office (OHCHR) to issue a renewed condemnation of the death penalty, urging all Member States to end its use.

An independent UN human rights expert on Friday appealed for Russia to immediately release detained journalist and prominent opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, whose life is at risk due to deteriorating health.

Civilians fleeing attacks by extremist groups in Burkina Faso must be allowed to shelter in neighbouring countries and not sent back, amid a spike in violence and horrifying rights abuses, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.