Child obesity level surpasses underweight cases worldwide for the first time, UNICEF warns
One in 10 children aged 5 to 19 – 188 million worldwide – are now living with obesity, placing them at heightened risk of...
The missing half: The urgent need for more women’s representation in the media
“When women are missing, democracy is incomplete,” said Kirsi Madi, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director with the UN gender equality agency, UN Women, responding...
Air pollution is on the rise – but not everywhere, says UN weather agency
“Air quality respects no boundaries,” said Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). “The smoke and the pollution that issues from...
It’s time to end physical punishment of kids once and for all, WHO says
Corporal punishment refers most frequently to hitting children but can refer to any punishments inflicted by parents, caregivers or teachers which are intended to...
World News in Brief: Cambodia-Thailand ceasefire, bloody weekend in Ukraine, stop hepatitis deaths
The deal was announced on Monday by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, current chair of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, and was due to...
Home is where the heart is — and where development begins
Mathare, one of the country’s largest slums, houses upwards of 500,000 people in five square kilometres, cramming them together and storing the human waste...
Desks become beds as Haitian school shelters people displaced by violence
The classrooms at Anténor Firmin school in Hinche in central Haiti are no longer studiously quiet.Once a place of learning, it now echoes with...
South Sudan’s longest cholera outbreak enters critical stage
The outbreak – which started in September 2024 and was confirmed a month later – comes amidst a protracted humanitarian crisis exacerbated by rising...
Every hour, 100 people die of loneliness-related causes, UN health agency reports
Loneliness is linked to approximately 100 deaths every hour – more than 871,000 deaths annually. By contrast, strong social connections are associated with better...
DR Congo: New initiative to eliminate HIV in children ‘a beacon of hope’
“Our country can no longer tolerate children being born and growing up with HIV, when tools exist to prevent, detect and effectively treat this...
While energy access improved, more funding is needed to address disparities, says WHO
While the rate of basic access to energy has increased since 2022, the current pace is insufficient to reach universal access by 2030, one...
‘Still reeling’: Myanmar quakes worsen humanitarian crisis in fractured country
The 28 March quake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale, struck central regions with deadly force, killing some 3,800 people and injuring over 5,000,...
Tobacco control efforts protect three-quarters of the world’s population, WHO report finds
The World Health Organization (WHO) published its 2025 report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic on Monday, focusing on the six policies outlined in the WHO MPOWER tobacco...
‘One Earth, One Health’: Yoga Day provides respite in a tumultuous world
This powerful message of International Yoga Day, observed annually on 21 June, reverberated through UN Headquarters in New York on Friday as hundreds gathered...
WHO warns of a health financing emergency
Speaking at the regular Friday press briefing in Geneva for humanitarian agencies, she warned that as wealthier nations make deep spending cuts, both international...
Make midwives universally accessible and save millions of lives, WHO urges
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this sort of large-scale life-saving is possible, if midwifery care is universally accessible and consistent with international...
Without urgent funding, global hunger hotspots are set to grow, UN warns
But hunger has followed them. Over 57 per cent of the population in the world’s youngest country to the south is already facing high...
Climate emergency is a health crisis ‘that is already killing us,’ says WHO
Europe is warming faster than any other WHO region, and the impact on people’s health is growing more severe. From rising death rates to...
AIDS still killing one person every minute as funding cuts stall progress
More than 30 million people are receiving lifesaving treatment worldwide however, making the UN’s AIDS response a “clear example of a multilateral success,” said Amina...
Songs of hope rise from Gaza’s ruins
Among them is Ahmed Abu Amsha, a music teacher who has become something of a humanitarian troubadour.Fleeting moments of joyLiving in a worn tent...
Flavoured nicotine products driving youth addiction, WHO warns
This is especially true among youth users: it’s one of the main reasons young people experiment with tobacco or nicotine products in the first...
Pandemics to pollution: WHO Assembly delivers landmark health decisions
In addition, the Assembly endorsed a wide range of measures to promote health equity, reduce air pollution, and strengthen protections for vulnerable populations.“The words...
Sudan conflict triggers regional health crisis, warns WHO
“The ongoing conflict and displacement, in addition to fragile health infrastructure and limited access to affected populations, pose a risk of mass disease transmission,”...
What’s your poison? Alcohol linked to higher risk of pancreatic cancer
The research, led by the UN World Health Organization’s centre for cancer research, pooled data from nearly 2.5 million people across Asia, Australia, Europe,...
