News headlines in January 2024, page 16

LONDON, Jan 12 (IPS) - Bangladesh just held an election. But it was far from an exercise in democracy.

Sheikh Hasina won her fourth consecutive term, and fifth overall, as prime minister in the general election held on 7 January. The result was never in doubt, with the main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), boycotting the vote over the ruling Awami League’s refusal to let a caretaker government oversee the election. This practice, abolished by the Awami League government in 2011, was, the BNP asserted, the only way to ensure a free and fair vote.

WASHINGTON DC, Jan 12 (IPS) - The world faces the existential threat of a climate change crisis, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the outcome of the latest UN climate summit, COP28 — hosted as it was by the CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies, and filled with a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists — is not going to do much to change that.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged countries to avoid an escalation in the situation in the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking commercial vessels amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

The UN Security Council met on Friday for briefings on the worsening situation across the Middle East, looking first at threats of forced displacement from Gaza and then the escalating conflict in and around the Red Sea – all as the war in Gaza approaches the 100-day mark. The UN relief chief told ambassadors that any Gazans forced to flee the enclave must be allowed to return "as international law demands", while a senior political affairs official warned that the cycle of violence over Red Sea shipping lanes risked major repercussions in Yemen and the wider region.

The public health risk from COVID-19 remains high, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared Cabo Verde free of malaria, hailing it as the latest success in the global fight against the disease.

As the Gaza conflict approaches the 100-day mark, an immediate ceasefire is “more urgent than ever”, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday.

With the annual average global temperature fast approaching the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, last year officially smashed the global temperature record, the UN weather agency (WMO) confirmed on Friday.

Israel strongly rejected accusations by South Africa of genocidal intent against Palestinians on Friday at the United Nations’ highest court, insisting that it was engaged “in a war it did not start and did not want” in Gaza.

JOHANNESBurg, Jan 11 (IPS) - Far from the mayhem, destruction, and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the South African government argued in the International Court of Justice in the Hague that it had an obligation and a right to bring a case to halt a genocide by the Israeli government and its military.