News headlines in January 2022, page 4

The Holocaust “defined the United Nations”, Secretary-General António Guterres told a virtual ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, recalling that the UN Charter was drafted in San Francisco “as the Dachau concentration camp was liberated”.  

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 (IPS) - A year ago, we welcomed 2021 with a sense of cautious optimism when the newly developed vaccines promised a shift in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus turned towards building back better and doing things differently as many countries started to rethink and rebuild their shattered economies.

UN teams are on the ground in Mozambique assisting thousands of people affected by Tropical Storm Ana, which made landfall in central and northern regions of the country earlier this week. 

A Tongan family’s trip to visit relatives on Mango island earlier this month turned into a nightmare, when the country was devastated by the eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano, and subsequent tsunami.

With no shifts in the frontlines in almost two years, the UN Special Envoy for Syria warnedt he Security Council about “a strategic stalemate” in the nearly 11-year-old war. 

New insights into quality of care for girls and women facing medical complications due to unsafe abortion were published on Wednesday by the UN health agency and partners.

More than eight million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Americas last week, the highest weekly caseload since the start of the pandemic, the head of the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists on Wednesday. 

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 26 (IPS) - Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the three major agricultural producers in South America, are currently experiencing a prolonged period of drought and low water levels in their main rivers. This is severely impacting harvests, as well as river transport of important summer crops, with maize and soybeans the main casualties. 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, warned on Wednesday that “racism and xenophobia are rising sharply”, highlighting violent attacks on Jewish sites and antisemitic incidents reported in many countries.

With Afghanistan “hanging by a thread” six months after the Taliban takeover, the world cannot abandon the country now – for the sake of its people and overall global security, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Wednesday.