WHO and partners deliver aid to two Gaza hospitals in high-risk missions

WHO and partners deliver aid to two Gaza hospitals in high-risk missions

Teams that undertook the high-risk missions witnessed intense hostilities in their vicinity, as well as high patient loads and overcrowding caused by people seeking refuge. They also reported that food needs remain dire across the enclave, which is impacting operations, with hungry people stopping convoys in hopes of finding something to eat. WHO Director-General Tedros…

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World News in Brief: Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza, cholera spreading in Sudan, aid for eastern Ukraine

World News in Brief: Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza, cholera spreading in Sudan, aid for eastern Ukraine

Holland’s outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag will facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify aid consignments to the embittered enclave, in line with a recent Security Council resolution. She will also establish a mechanism to accelerate humanitarian relief shipments through States that are not party to the conflict. She is expected to take up the assignment…

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Gaza health workers pushed to the limit amid airstrike ‘carnage’

Gaza health workers pushed to the limit amid airstrike ‘carnage’

World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Teams coordinator Sean Casey said that “100-plus patients” had been brought into Al-Aqsa Hospital on Monday in the space of 30 minutes, following reported blasts, including near Al-Maghazi refugee camp.  All of them needed urgent treatment for serious wounds, the WHO official told UN News, while “about 100” more…

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2023 marked by achievements and 'avoidable suffering': WHO chief

2023 marked by achievements and ‘avoidable suffering’: WHO chief

Reflecting on 2023, which also marked the UN agency’s 75th anniversary, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted key achievements and set out objectives for the coming year. “In May, I declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. This marked a turning point for the world following three years of crisis,…

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Good morning, Mogadishu! Preserving Somalia’s cultural history, one tape at a time

Good morning, Mogadishu! Preserving Somalia’s cultural history, one tape at a time

Sitting in a small, windowless room in a government building in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed loops another audio tape onto the dilapidated machine and presses a few buttons. He’s beginning a time-intensive process to digitize some seven decades of unique historical recordings belonging to the government-run Radio Mogadishu. One down, a couple…

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General Assembly approves $3.59 billion UN budget for 2024

General Assembly approves $3.59 billion UN budget for 2024

In actions taken late evening on Friday, the 193-member General Assembly also adopted nearly $50 million in additional funding for decisions taken by the Human Rights Council, UN’s primary forum on human rights matters. It also decided to establish the Peacebuilding Account, a dedicated multi-year special account, as a modality to finance the Peacebuilding Fund….

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INTERVIEW: Actor Natalie Portman celebrates women and girls’ voices

INTERVIEW: Actor Natalie Portman celebrates women and girls’ voices

In an interview with UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming on the sidelines of SDG Summit 2023 held at UN Headquarters in New York in September, Ms. Portman discussed combatting violence against women and reframing masculinity to be less aggressive and more empathetic towards gender issues. Melissa Fleming: The UN 2023 Gender Snapshot report painted a…

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Gaza crisis: Starvation must never be allowed to happen, says UN rights chief

Gaza crisis: Starvation must never be allowed to happen, says UN rights chief

“Starvation must never be a means or result of warfare,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk said, responding to an alarming food security report released on Thursday that confirmed repeated warnings of catastrophic hunger levels in the besieged enclave amid ongoing fighting.  In a tweet, Mr. Türk urged Israel to act immediately to ensure that all…

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Dengue spike fuels concerns of public health threat in previously untouched countries: WHO

Dengue spike fuels concerns of public health threat in previously untouched countries: WHO

The warning came as WHO reported more than five million dengue infections and 5,000 deaths from the disease worldwide this year. Briefing journalists at the UN in Geneva, Dr. Diana Rojas Alvarez, WHO Team Lead on Arboviruses, said that the threat required “the maximal attention and response from all levels” of the UN health agency…

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