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Half the world now following doctors’ orders on cutting trans fats: WHO

A total of 53 countries had best practice policies in place for tackling industrial trans fats in food as of last year, vastly improving the food environment for 3.7 billion people, or 46 per cent of the world’s population, according to a milestone report published by the UN World Health…

First Person: Moving from fear to hope after war on drugs in the Philippines

People who use drugs in the Philippines are being treated less as criminals and more as patients who need medical help and other interventions, as authorities there look to update the country’s former controversial policies…

Gaza is more than two million stories of loss: UN agencies

Gaza is “a world of devastation” and still in the grip of war after nearly nine months of conflict, UN humanitarians just back from the enclave reported on Friday, as they described widespread destruction and stories of pregnant mothers forced to request preterm C-sections out of desperation and…

First Person: Philippines ‘cyber cops’ tackle explosion of online child abuse

Law enforcement officers in the Philippines are being informally supported by the United Nations as they deal with the emotional stress of chasing online child abusers. The Southeast Asian country has…

World News in Brief: UNHCR rushes support to Rohingyas, end ‘normalisation’ of prostitution, Zambia’s devastating drought

Deadly monsoon landslides in southern Bangladesh have destroyed over 1,200 shelters and displaced around 2,000 ethnic Rohingya from neighbouring Myanmar who need urgent assistance, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has said…

Record levels of displacement amid global conflict and natural disasters

There are twice as many internally displaced people today as there were ten years ago - the largest numbers ever recorded, said Special Advisor on Solutions to Internal Displacement Robert Piper, on Friday. …

‘World cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza’: Guterres

The UN Secretary-General on Friday voiced profound concern over escalating violence and “bellicose rhetoric” between Israel and Hezbollah militants across the frontier with Lebanon, warning that one false move could trigger a catastrophe for the whole region and beyond…

Officials highlight massive poverty, humanitarian despair in Afghanistan

The humanitarian needs in Afghanistan are “alarmingly high” and the international community is in “crisis management mode”, the UN Security Council heard on Friday. Top officials from the UN Assistance…

Haiti faces record displacement amid escalating gang violence

Escalating gang violence and political instability in Haiti have forced a record 578,074 people from their homes this year, making it the country with the largest number of displacements due to crime-related violence, UN independent human rights experts said on Thursday…

UN health agency issues alert on falsified semaglutides used for diabetes treatment, weight loss

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday issued a medical product alert on the release of three batches of falsified semaglutides – brand name Ozempic – the type of medicines primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity in some countries…