News headlines in December 2024, page 5

The General Assembly on Tuesday adopted the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, a landmark global treaty aimed at strengthening international cooperation to combat cybercrime and protecting societies from digital threats.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday launched a $56.4 million flash appeal to address urgent health needs in Syria, where years of conflict have cripped the healthcare system.

Sudan is confronting a widening famine crisis, with widespread starvation, surging acute malnutrition and mass displacement exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation, a UN-backed food security assessment released on Tuesday has found.

As we near the end of another year of war and humanitarian crisis, UN News is highlighting the extraordinary work of staffers in the field who feed our story-telling efforts for global audiences. Our first UN News Champion is Louise Wateridge of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNWRA. Louise’s reporting and communications expertise has enriched our coverage and demonstrated why the UN matters to millions of beneficiaries around the world.

CAMBRIDGE, MA., Dec 23 (IPS) - A tribunal of trade arbitrators has ruled in favor of the United States in its complaint that Mexico’s restrictions on genetically modified corn violate the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA). The long-awaited ruling in the 16-month trade dispute is unlikely to settle the questions raised by Mexico about the safety of consuming GM corn and its associated herbicide.

MERIDA, Mexico, Dec 23 (IPS) - When he promoted the Maya Train (TM) in 2019, then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who ruled Mexico between 2018 and October this year, stated that the railway line would be an engine of development for the southeastern Yucatan peninsula.

Dec 23 (IPS) - CIVICUS discusses the ongoing crackdown on civil society in Belarus with Natallia Satsunkevich, human rights defender and interim board member of the Viasna Human Rights Centre.

TORONTO, Canada, Dec 23 (IPS) - Do you sometimes feel like a hamster on its wheel, or perhaps stuck on a runaway train hurtling towards the abyss? Whatever metaphor one might choose for our world looking back on 2024, rainbows don’t easily spring to mind.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23 (IPS) - As talks of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine intensify, bombardments in Gaza continue, raising the number of civilian casualties and internal displacements. A December 19 report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned Israeli authorities for committing acts of genocide upon the people in the Gaza Strip, including the deprivation of water and the destruction of critical water sanitation infrastructures.

BUCHAREST, Romania, Dec 23 (IPS) - The days are short with bitterly cold rain in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, the largest Balkan country located south of the Ukraine. Over the border, temperatures in Kyiv will plummet to a daily average of zero in December as the Ukraine war grinds on.