WHO chief opens assembly with push for 'historic' pandemic treaty
The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus many of the world's glaring inequalities between rich and poorer nations.
Global Issues
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Economic sanctions as a modern tool: Cruel to the most vulnerable?
A new study finds economic sanctions in target countries contribute to increases in mortality, poverty, and inequality, and to declines in per-capita income and human rights.
Odds are 2-1 of temporary breach to Paris treaty's lower limit in 5 years
The annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027 will likely be more than 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels for at least one year.
U.N. proposes global 'roadmap' to 80% cut in plastic pollution by 2040
The estimated annual social and environmental costs of plastic pollution range from $300 billion to $1.5 trillion.
Progress in reducing deaths during pregnancy and birth has 'flatlined'
More than 4.5 million pregnant women and babies die each year during pregnancy, childbirth or the first few weeks of life – one death every seven seconds.
U.N. health agency declares COVID-19 no longer a global emergency
Though the emergency phase is over, the World Health Organization's pandemic designation still holds.
El Niño could push temperatures even higher: climate agencies
The onset of a possible El Niño climate event later this year combined with rising greenhouse gases could push global temperatures to a new warming record.
Faking content is getting easier. Digging for truth is getting harder.
There's a growing industry and more tools for producing and distributing disinformation. Meanwhile, authorities are getting more aggressive and hostile toward journalists.
UNICEF raises alert over lagging confidence in childhood vaccines
Public perception of the importance of vaccines for children fell during the pandemic in 52 of 55 countries studied.
Opinion | The great Twitter cull looms for leaders and organizations
Hundreds of accounts of world leaders and their institutions, plus 40 organizations and their leaders, were to be demoted.
Cost of gender inequalities in food and agriculture put at 1% global GDP
Closing the gender gap in productivity and wages would boost global GDP by nearly $1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million.
Developing nations forecast to lose $800B from debt and slowdown
UNCTAD said it expects global growth in 2023 to drop to 2.1% but only if the financial fallout from higher interest rates is contained.
At 75, U.N. health agency is lightning rod for equity and cooperation
As WHO celebrated its 75th anniversary – commemorating World Health Day and the day its constitution took effect – the COVID-19 pandemic's lessons were inescapable.
Slower trade growth projected in 2023 mainly due to war in Ukraine
The WTO expects trade growth to slow to 1.7% this year due to Russia's war in Ukraine, high inflation, tight monetary policy and market uncertainty.
Putin, charged with war crimes, takes over U.N.'s most powerful arm
Russia's status as president of the U.N. Security Council is bound up in a frozen-in-time power structure dating to the end of World War II.
Stockpiles of nuclear weapons available for use increased in 2022
The number of nuclear warheads available to nations for deployment reached 9,576 at the start of 2023, up from 9,440 a year earlier.