News headlines in May 2022, page 18

STOCKHOLM, May 12 (IPS) - An entirely unnecessary and all too tangible nightmare continues to scourge Ukraine. Without doubt, one catastrophe after another still awaits. Much of Ukraine’s harvest, of paramount importance to global food supply, is at risk of being lost due to Vladimir Putin’s and the Russian army’s belligerent actions. Last year, Ukraine harvested a record of 106 million tonnes of grain – 25, or even 50 percent of this amount is currently feared to be lost during this year while most experts add that “this is an optimistic forecast.”

ROME, May 12 (IPS) - The writer is Director, Global Health Justice Program, Society for International Development (SID), and Co-chair Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2). In what has been defined a historic consensus decision aimed at protecting the world from future infectious diseases crises, on 1st December 2021, the special session of the World Health Assembly agreed to kickstart a global process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Amidst rising tensions, a months-long political stalemate and increasing speculation about yet another conflict in Europe, the international community must stand firm behind a peaceful, unified Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country’s UN envoy told the Security Council on Wednesday.

MADRID, May 11 (IPS) - It is as simple –and as horrifying– as that: both human health and the health of Planet Earth depend on plants. However, plants that make up 80% of the food and 98% of the oxygen, are under growing dangerous threats.

Donors on Wednesday pledged $33 million towards a UN-coordinated plan to prevent an ageing oil tanker moored off the west Coast of Yemen from sparking a potential ecological and humanitarian disaster. 

The world is facing “multiple and interlinked global crises,” the UN chief told journalists in Austria on Wednesday during a joint press conference with Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.

Senior officials from across the United Nations are calling for an investigation into the killing on Wednesday of well-known Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh. 

An estimated 4.8 million jobs have been lost in Ukraine since Russia’s 24 February invasion, according to a brief published on Wednesday by the UN’s labour agency.

To support young people’s political participation and amplify their voices in public life, the UN launched a campaign on Wednesday in collaboration with the Youth Envoy.

New York, May 11 (IPS) - A joint UN Women and CARE report on the gender disparities in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis calls for donors and humanitarian partners to take greater care to promote the voices of women and marginalized communities in the humanitarian effort.