News headlines in February 2024, page 10

PARIS, Feb 19 (IPS) - The International Energy Agency (IEA) held its annual ministers meeting last week in Paris, marking the 50^th anniversary of the world’s leading energy organization. Critical topics on the agenda included energy security issues linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, as well as advancing a clean energy transition to meet global climate change goals.

BANGKOK, Feb 19 (IPS) - Dr Ismahane Elouafi has her work cut out. As the new executive managing director of CGIAR, a global network of agricultural research centers, her mandate, simply put, is to tackle the world’s most severe hunger crisis in modern history.

WASHINGTON DC, Feb 19 (IPS) - Chile’s economy is at a crossroads. Strong policies have successfully brought down high inflation and reduced the large current account deficit that emerged during the pandemic. Increases in social benefits have provided some relief in response to discontent over inequality.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Feb 19 (IPS) - Imperialism continues to dominate the world. Globalisation is losing to some of its anti-theses, but imperialism still rules, increasingly by law, albeit in changing even contradictory ways.

At least 25 million people are struggling with soaring rates of hunger and malnutrition as the crisis arising from the war in Sudan sends shockwaves around the region, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday.

Somalia remains resilient and strongly committed to state-building but more is needed to sustain the gains made in the fight against terrorist insurgency, the UN Special Representative in the country told the Security Council on Monday.

An extension of Israel’s military operation in Rafah, where over a million internally displaced Palestinians have been forced to shelter, will have “dire humanitarian consequences”, the UN Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza said on Monday.

Alleged rights violations against Palestinian women and girls in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank must be investigated, a group of experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Monday.

The United Kingdom’s legislative moves to facilitate the prompt removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda run contrary to the basic principles of the rule of law and risk delivering a “serious blow” to human rights, the UN rights chief warned on Monday.

The UN Secretary-General on Monday highlighted the urgent need for an end to restrictions imposed by the Taliban de facto authorities on women and girls in Afghanistan.