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UN chief António Guterres is calling for measures to address a “horrifying global surge in domestic violence” directed towards women and girls, linked to lockdowns imposed by governments responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With no end in sight to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the UN climate change talks which were due to take place in Scotland later in the year, have been postponed until October 2021.

The decision was announced on Wednesday night by the advisory group to the COP26 talks, overseen by the UN climate change body, the UNFCCC, after talks involving the United Kingdom and other countries.

The rights of persons with autism must be taken into account in efforts to address the COVID-19 coronavirus: “a public health crisis unlike any other in our lifetimes”, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday.

António Guterres’s appeal came in his message for World Autism Awareness Day, observed annually on 2 April.

UN weather experts warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic risks disrupting key forecasting services, including early warning alerts around the world.

Both the quantity and quality of weather observations and forecasts, as well as atmospheric and climate monitoring are at stake, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva.

COVID-19 will be responsible for pushing a further 8.3 million people in the Arab region into poverty, according to a new policy brief issued on Wednesday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

And the pandemic could also bump up the number of undernourished people there by some two million. 

Current estimates show that there are some 101.4 million in the region who already live in poverty, according to official criteria, and around 52 million undernourished.

Deaths from COVID-19 have more than doubled in the past week and will soon reach 50,000 worldwide, while the global caseload is heading towards one million, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists on Wednesday.

Given how quickly the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading, an outbreak is “looking imminent” in the world’s refugee camps, crowded reception centres or detention facilities where migrant families are sheltering, the Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.

UNIFIL today handed over a number of equipment and other accessories to the Naqoura Municipality, which hosts the UN Mission’s Headquarters in south Lebanon. This donation is part of UNIFIL’s broader effort to assist the local population and communities in the common fight against the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.