News headlines in February 2024

QAMISHLI, Syria, Feb 29 (IPS) - The Ramsys, a farming couple from northeast Syria, never thought they'd spend almost all their savings on solar panels. “We’ve paid 1,700 USD. We simply couldn't cope with darkness and being disconnected from the outside world,” Najma Ramsy tells IPS from her residence in Keshka, a small Kurdish village 70 km east of Qamishli.

NAIROBI, Feb 29 (IPS) - Deborah Adhiambo (43) has been battling mild asthma since 2022, a condition she describes as “both a health and economic burden.’’ The mother of three lives within Dandora Estate, nine miles east of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Dandora is home to Kenya’s largest open landfill, which receives more than 2,000 metric tonnes of waste daily.

GAZA STRIP, Feb 29 (IPS) - Nothing could prepare me for my recently concluded mission into the Gaza Strip, where children face catastrophic conditions.

In my twenty years with UNICEF, traveling from one humanitarian crisis to the next – from famines to floods and war zones to refugee camps – I’ve simply never seen such devastation and despair as is happening in Gaza.

At least one in eight people on Earth are living with obesity, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, citing a newly released global medical study.

As the devastating war in Gaza continues, UN investigators examining Israeli accusations against a dozen employees of the beleaguered UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, have arrived in Jordan and are planning to visit Israel, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Thursday.

The Nicaraguan Government continues to perpetrate “serious systematic human rights violations, tantamount to crimes against humanity,” an expert group appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Thursday.

Leaders attending a major UN environmental conference in Nairobi must drive forward solutions to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.

The UN Secretary-General said on Thursday he was “appalled by the tragic human toll of the conflict in Gaza” where more than 30,000 people have now reportedly been killed and over 70,000 injured.

UN News has learned that out of desperation, some Gazans have resorted to selling wild plants with little nutritional value, in the markets of their devastated enclave. In this special report, Ziad Taleb spoke to some of the young people trying to make a living, despite the ever-present dangers.

The world urgently needs 44 million teachers by 2030 in order to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality, a new report from UNESCOthe UN agency championing education, announced this week.