News headlines in October 2023, page 5

NEW YORK, Oct 27 (IPS) - This year – 2023 - started with a commemoration of one year of war in, and on Ukraine, which has dramatically impacted the price of basic needs for the world’s populations in every corner of the world. It is an ongoing calamity for a world already living its worst collective food, public health and conflict-based insecurities.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 27 (IPS) - Last August, 91 UN member states, “in a demonstration of solidarity and commitment”, signed a U.S.-Led Joint Communiqué condemning the Use of Food as a Weapon of War.

Roughly 345 million people – in 79 countries – face acute food insecurity, often caused or exacerbated by armed conflicts, the US said, pointing out that the joint communiqué was born out of the United States’ resolve to once again use its UN Security Council presidency to draw attention to conflict-induced food insecurity.

LIMA, Oct 26 (IPS) - The lack of water is so severe in Peru's highlands that farming families are forced to sell their livestock because they cannot feed them. "There is no grass or fodder to feed them," says Fermina Quispe, a Quechua farmer from a rural community located at 4,200 meters above sea level.

SAINT LUCIA, Oct 26 (IPS) - A new report by the University lists six areas of grave concern and states that in the absence of behavior and priority change, the world could face catastrophe in areas like groundwater depletion and species extinction.Melting mountain glaciers. Unbearable heat. An uninsurable future. Space debris. Groundwater depletion. Accelerating extinctions. The United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security said this week that these six environmental "tipping points" can have "irreversible, catastrophic impacts for people and the planet."

Oct 26 (IPS) - On December 4, 2019, landslides in the Bududa region of Uganda killed 20. The landslides occurred after heavy rains, and a Red Cross report estimated that 96 households were affected, with 49 houses destroyed. It displaced many, while others continued to live in high-risk areas that could "slide at any moment."

AMMAN, Jordan, Oct 26 (IPS) - For the first time since the beginning of a war that claimed the lives of over 220,000 people, a senior Houthi delegation travelled from Yemen to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh in mid-September.

Much of the damage caused by the destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam in June is “irreversible”, with likely changes to the environment that impact ecosystems and human health.

Experts with deep experience across government, the private sector, technology, civil society, and academia have been tasked with supporting UN efforts to ensure Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used for the greater good of humanity.

Progress has been made in advancing a 2019 peace agreement in the Central African Republic (CAR) but the support of the international community is still vital, the UN Special Representative Valentine Rugwabiza told the Security Council on Thursday.

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday morning, in New York, is holding an emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine conflict, amid a continuing deadlock at the Security Council, and conditions in the besieged enclave of Gaza growing more dire by the hour. Follow this page for live updates...