News headlines in August 2024, page 5

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 (IPS) - UN General Secretary General António Guterres warned of the wide-ranging impacts of climate change on a visit to the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tonga.

MONTREAL & HYDERABAD, Aug 27 (IPS) - "We are living in a time where nature is regularly raising its hand and saying, 'Look, I'm here and I'm in trouble,' and then bringing us all sorts of natural disasters to the table," says Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), in an exclusive interview with IPS. 

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 27 (IPS) - ‘Peace with Nature' is the theme for the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which will take place in Cali, Colombia, between October 21 and November 1, 2024.

LONDON, Aug 27 (IPS) - Civil society is working on all fronts to tackle the climate crisis. Activists are protesting in numbers to pressure governments and corporations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They're using non-violent direct action and high-profile stunts, paying a heavy price as numerous states criminalise climate protest.

Around 20 villages in eastern Sudan have reportedly been “destroyed”, with 70 impacted overall, after floodwaters burst through a major dam, according to UN humanitarians – adding to the suffering of communities already devastated by the ongoing war between rival militaries.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the killing of around 200 people in the Burkinabe town of Barsalogho at the weekend, which left a further 140 injured.

The United Nations has upheld the safety of the polio vaccine that will be administered to more than half a million Palestinian children during an inoculation campaign in Gaza.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday that the mpox outbreak could have devastating effects on refugees and displaced families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other affected African countries if urgent support is not forthcoming.

A new morality law enacted by the Taliban in Afghanistan, cements policies that “completely erase” women’s presence in public, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday, calling for it to be immediately revoked.

China still has “many problematic laws and policies” regarding the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region two years after the UN human rights office, OHCHR, published a report on serious violations against the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.