World News in Brief: ‘Outrage’ over Black Sea attack, funding pledge to alleviate El Niño, breast cancer alert

Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement that Wednesday’s attack came on the heels of a series of assaults that killed and inured civilians, destroyed grain supplies and damaged the historic Fine Arts Museum in the Ukrainian port city.

“I share my condolences with the family of the killed port pilot and hope for the recovery of the injured”, she said.

Three of the injured were crew members from the Philippines, according to news reports.

Since the Russian withdrawal from the UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative in July, there have been more than 30 attacks on Ukraine’s port infrastructure, but this marked the first time civilians have been killed and injured onboard a merchant ship.

“The consequences of this brutal and relentless pattern of Russian attacks on port facilities are devasting for Ukraine's economy and the hundreds of millions of people facing hunger worldwide”, Ms. Brown said.

Funding needed to prevent El Niño from aggravating global hunger

The El Niño climate pattern will have severe impacts on agriculture and food security, threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people who require urgent support, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.

El Niño affects farming and food production by bringing either too much or too little rain, depending on the region, and disrupting temperatures.

FAO called for emergency funding of $160 million to help over 4.8 million of the most vulnerable people in 34 countries and prevent damage and loss of crops, livestock, land, water and infrastructure.

The UN agency warned that the world was entering the current El Niño cycle with a record 258 million people experiencing acute hunger and only a fifth of the total funds required to cope with the high levels of food insecurity.

Farmers, pastoralists, fishers and other small-scale producers bear the brunt of climate shocks, FAO said. In Somalia, the UN agency supported them by repairing riverbank breakage points along the Shabelle river to protect 40,000 hectares of cropland from floods.

“Every dollar invested in anticipatory action can create a return for farming families of more than $7 in avoided losses and added benefits,” according to the FAO.

‘Striking’ regional inequalities in early breast cancer detection

Crucial early detection of breast cancer is strongly determined by where the cancer patient lives, according to new research by the UN World Health Organization’s cancer research agency, IARC.

The study of more than two million women across 81 countries published on Thursday found “striking” variations across countries and regions.

Close to one in three women diagnosed with breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa for example were found to have later-stage tumours which had spread from their original location, compared to just one in 10 in Europe and North America.

The report also shows that a higher proportion of women with low socioeconomic status were diagnosed with later-stage tumours.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer type worldwide and the leading cause of death from cancer in women.

To reduce breast cancer deaths, WHO advises that countries strive to increase the proportion of breast cancers diagnosed at an early stage to at least 60 per cent, which requires investment in detection capabilities and in data-gathering.