News headlines in 2023, page 148

Senior UN officials and donor partners on Sunday visited the Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin,where they witnessed the “shocking” damage sustained during the Israeli incursion this past week.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the air strike in the Sudanese city of Omdurman on Saturday which reportedly killed at least 22 people.

Grappling with climate shocks, COVID-19 recovery, and conflict, Mozambique is building resilience and overcoming many challenges, as Myrta Kaulard, outgoing UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in in the country, explains to UN News.

Alexander Lobov, a military engineer and mine action expert with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), has worked in hotspots from Afghanistan to Somalia, but never imagined using this experience in his native country, Ukraine, now one of the world’s most heavily mined places since Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022.

CHAPEL HILL, NC, USA, Jul 07 (IPS) - Small Island Developing States (or SIDS) have been talking about loss and damage in an insurance context since the creation of the UNFCCC. The original 1990s outline of the UNFCCC included the proposal for an international insurance fund that would compensate low-lying countries for losses from rising sea levels in the future, however, this fund was never adopted in the final text.

SANTA LUZIA, Brazil, Jul 07 (IPS) - "Anxiety, insomnia and depression have become widespread. We don't sleep well, I wake up three, four times a night," complained Brazilian farmer Roselma de Melo Oliveira, 35, who has lived 160 meters from a wind turbine for eight years.

SOUFRIERE, SAINT LUCIA, Jul 07 (IPS) - The World Meteorological Organization launched its State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean report this week. Amid above average sea-level rise, drought and global warming, the new publication is calling for ramped up adaptation action to save lives and livelihoods.The World Meteorological Organization says adaptation efforts and the switch to renewable energy must increase for regions like Latin America and the Caribbean to face the challenges of a changing climate.

BERLIN, Jul 07 (IPS) - The Wagner uprising – despite its short duration – has demonstrated the vulnerability of Putin's power system.

In the past, the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin seemed like a dark, mysterious figure somewhere from the depths of the Kremlin's web of secrets. This also has to do with the fact that he did those 'jobs' for the Russian government that took place in a semi-official grey area — such as mercenary assignments in Syria or Africa, or even before that the operation of the Petersburg troll factory with a network of fake media and disinformation machinery.

In a wide-ranging briefing on Friday, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths highlighted the need to keep aid flowing into northwest Syria and to allow Ukrainian and Russian grain exports to reach global markets amid the ongoing war.

The food and fertilizer export deals brokered by the UN last year with Ukraine and Russia have played an “indispensable role” in supporting global food security and must continue, the UN Secretary-General said on Friday.