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The head of the UN food relief agency called on the world’s richest nations on Thursday to invest more in sustainable living, to feed the world’s growing population.

In his appeal to G20 environment ministers, the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Qu Dongyu, highlighted the challenge of having to produce more food while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Nearly half of the 1.7 million children worldwide living with HIV were not on treatment last year, the UN programme leading the global fight against HIV and AIDS, UNAIDS, said in a report released together with partners. 

The location of Darb El Seem, along a riverbank on the outskirts of Saida, is idyllic. But for the 250 Syrian refugees – 150 of them children – who live there, the informal settlement is a place of desperation, disease and hunger.

“We live on bread and zaatar. My children eat first, and if there’s anything left, I’ll eat that” – Rehaf, mother of three.

Celebrating what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 102nd birthday on Wednesday, the UN deputy chief hailed the man who led the struggle that ended the racist apartheid system in his native South Africa as exemplifying “courage, compassion and an unwavering commitment to social justice and equality”.   

The head of the UN World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has welcomed the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a chance to spread “hope to the world”.
 

Speaking in the Japanese capital Tokyo, he said the world must unite with “determination, dedication and discipline” to triumph over the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The UN human rights chief on Monday said the apparent widespread use of Pegasus spy software to illegally undermine the rights of those under surveillance, including journalists and politicians, was “extremely alarming” and confirmed “some of the worst fears” surrounding the potential misuse of such technology. 

Child labour in Lebanon is on the increase because of compound and multiple crises: a deepening economic crisis, instability, the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the Beirut port explosions.

Fewer women will regain jobs lost to the COVID-19 pandemic during the recovery period, than men, according to a new study released on Monday by the UN’s labour agency.  

Marking World Chess Day on Tuesday, the UN is celebrating the fact that while COVID-19 has forced most sports to scale down, this ancient game of intellect, not brute strength, has demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability throughout months of lockdown worldwide.

This is the story of four families of different nationalities living in southern Beirut’s Burj El Barajneh camp.