year Archives - Page 2 of 4

2024 to become the hottest year on record

·December 31, 2024·2 min read

“Today I can officially report that we have just endured a decade of deadly heat. The top ten hottest years on record have happened in the last ten years, including 2024,” said Secretary-General António Guterres in his message for the New Year. “This is climate breakdown — in real time. We must...

305 million people need lifesaving help next year, says UN’s top aid official

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·December 4, 2024·4 min read

“The world is on fire…We are dealing with a polycrisis right now globally and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price. We are dealing with the impact of conflicts – multiple conflicts – and crises of longer duration and of more intense ferocity” said...

‘Indescribable’ pain one year after 7 October attacks

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·October 8, 2024·3 min read

The war in Gaza was sparked following a brutal attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel and has led to an ongoing offensive by Israeli forces against the militants. Ahmed Abu Aita lost 45 relatives, including his wife and son, together with his family-run dairy and...

WHO highlights mental health crisis facing Israel’s frontline workers a year after 7 October attack

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·October 7, 2024·3 min read

Responders including ambulance drivers, health workers and forensic teams who identified many of the dead, all witnessed “carnage and horror” which resulted in lasting trauma. An organization named Mashiv Ha’Ruach, which means “Bringing back the spirit”, provided mental health and psychosocial support through workshop retreats supported by WHO/Europe. These sessions...

WHO reports 71 per cent rise in cholera deaths last year

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·September 9, 2024·1 min read

Over 4000 people died from the disease last year, a 71 per cent increase compared to 2022. The number of reported cases also increased by 13 per cent. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread through contaminated food and water. While it is preventable and easily treatable, communities with limited access...

WMO confirms 2023 as warmest year on record ‘by a huge margin’

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·January 13, 2024·1 min read

The World Meteorological Organization uses six leading international datasets from across the globe to monitor global temperatures, which reveal a new annual temperature average of 1.45°C set against the pre-industrial era (1850-1900). Every month between June and December set new records. July and August were the two hottest months ever...

COP28: UN says staggering $7 trillion spent every year on investments that fuel climate change

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·December 9, 2023·3 min read

The report from the UN’s environmental wing, UNEP, also revealed that despite decades of calls for ending finance flows towards sectors that harm some of humanity’s most valuable assets, those investments currently account for a whopping 7 percent of global GDP. Saturday’s report launch comes as negotiations on the conference’s...

2023 likely hottest year on record; further spike expected with El Niño

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·November 13, 2023·2 min read

That’s the message from UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which said on Wednesday that for the calendar year to date, the global mean temperature is the highest ever recorded, 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and sea ice in the Antarctic remains at record low levels. WMO expects the warming El...

UN welcomes release of five staff abducted last year in Yemen

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·August 11, 2023·2 min read

The men – four national staff and a Bangladeshi citizen – were abducted in the southern governorate of Abyan on 11 February 2022 after returning from a field mission. UN Secretary-General António Guterres was delighted to learn of their release, noting that available information suggests they all are in good...

Ukraine: UN rights chief upholds need for justice one year after POW killings

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·July 26, 2023·2 min read

The “tragic killing” at the penal colony at Olenivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, under temporary Russian military control, occurred overnight on 28 July 2022. Many of the POWs were Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered at the stricken Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol. Appeal for...

UN remembers 77 personnel who died in the line of duty last year

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·July 19, 2023·3 min read

“We are here to mourn together, to remember together, and to pay our respects together,” Secretary-General António Guterres said at the solemn ceremony, held in the Trusteeship Council chamber at UN Headquarters in New York. Relatives of the fallen personnel, members of the diplomatic community and UN staff from around...

‘Dire year’ for children caught in conflict, as hospital and school attacks double

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·June 28, 2023·3 min read

Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba unveiled the Secretary-General’s latest annual report, for 2022, which showed there were 27,180 grave violations overall, an increase from the previous year. The recorded violations only refer to verified information, with the likely toll much higher, and cover four categories: recruitment...