What's New

A new report issued on Wednesday by the UN agency leading the fight against HIV/AIDS shows that people living with the human immunodeficiency virus face the double jeopardy of HIV and COVID-19 – as widening inequalities continue to prevent them from accessing services. 

The variant’s spread, along with increased social mobility and the inconsistent use of proven public health measures, is driving an increase in both case numbers and deaths, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Although a new European Union (EU) climate initiative unveiled on Wednesday could change global trade patterns to favour countries where production is relatively carbon efficient, its value in mitigating climate change will likely be limited, the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, has warned. 

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) comes into force in 2023 as part of new measures to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, including taxes on imports such as oil, coal and gas. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major backsliding in childhood vaccinations, with 23 million children worldwide missing out on routine immunizations last year, two UN agencies reported on Wednesday. 

This is the highest number since 2009, and nearly four million more than recorded in the year preceding the crisis, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF. 

The head of the UN Children’s Fund, Henrietta Fore, announced her resignation on Tuesday, in order to devote herself fulltime to caring for her husband, who is suffering from what she described as a serious health issue.

Ms. Fore said it had been “a difficult decision”, and in a message to staff, described holding the office of Executive Director as “a tremendous honour”.

Around one in three countries are not yet implementing remedial programmes to help students catch up on their learning, in the wake of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two UN agencies and partners said in a report issued on Tuesday. 

Equitably “redirecting, repurposing or eliminating incentives” that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year is just one of the 21 ambitious targets of a new draft agreement released by a UN body in the lead up to the landmark November climate conference, COP26, in the United Kingdom.

The COVID pandemic has taken four million lives, devastated the global economy, pushed a further 124 million people into extreme poverty and continues to inflict profound suffering – dramatically impacting progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN chief said on Tuesday at a key international forum. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to education, shutting down schools for months on end. Now, with vaccines driving down infection rates, students in Lebanon are back in school, but some will not find their way back into the classroom this year.

The COVID-19 Delta variant is travelling around the world at a “scorching pace” driving a new spike in cases and deaths, but it’s exposing a ‘hugely uneven and inequitable’ global gap in vaccine supply, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

“We’re in the midst of a growing two-track pandemic where the haves and have-nots within and between countries are increasingly divergent”, underscored Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus.