News headlines in 2023, page 207

The relentless advance of climate change brought more drought, flooding and heatwaves to communities around the world last year, compounding threats to people’s lives and livelihoods, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.

Decisions made at the UN can push governments to improve the rights of indigenous peoples, who still face discrimination, says Aboriginal Australian activist and human rights lawyer Hannah McGlade.

HANOI, Apr 20 (IPS) - This month Nature spotlighted three insightful new studies chronicling food-related challenges from a global perspective. One presented worrisome new data on the global rise in the prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure and liver disease, all linked to obesity. Another presented a new assessment revealing that half of the greenhouse emissions generated by food systems globally are caused by food waste. Finally, the third study found that food consumption could add “nearly 1 degree Celsius to warming by 2100,” with most of that attributed to global methane emissions from meat, dairy and rice production.

NEW DELHI, Apr 20 (IPS) - The removal from school textbooks of chapters covering the Mughal period of Indian history spanning three centuries has raised a storm of protests from academics.

GENEVA, Switzerland, Apr 20 (IPS) - As 2022 came to a close, ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, became the fastest-growing app in history, reaching an estimated 123 million users less than three months after its launch.

In April 1994, a sinister call was broadcast over radio stations across Rwanda, triggering the start of 100 days of genocide that left more than one million people dead. Henriette Mutegwaraba heard that call.

An ambitious UN-led effort to create mRNA technology transfer hubs in the developing world, is taking another major step forward this week at an international conference in Cape Town, South Africa, coinciding with the official launch on Thursday of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first transfer hub.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has carried out a month-long field mission to areas of northwest Syria devastated by the February earthquakes there, and in Türkiye, helping stem the risk of further disease outbreaks or full-blown epidemics.

If governments continue with the same environmental policies currently in place, the world will become 2.8°C hotter by the end of the century, which would be “a death sentence”, warned the UN chief on Thursday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday appealed for warring parties in Sudan to observe a ceasefire for at least three days so that civilians trapped in conflict zones can seek medical treatment, food and other essential supplies. His call to silence the guns during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, marking the end of Ramadan, followed a virtual meeting on the crisis, convened by the African Union (AU).