flooding DRC
At Risk

Flooding Congo River Overwhelms Countries on Both Banks

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 12, 2024 (ENS) – After two months of heavy rain, the waters of the Congo River have risen higher than anyone has seen them in more than 60 years. The flooding rains have claimed more than 300 lives and disrupted 300,000+ households in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 17 lives in the Republic of the Congo, authorities on both sides of the river said. […]

doctor protests London UK
Health

120 Nations, Millions of Doctors, Nurses Urge Climate Action

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 3, 2023 (ENS) – On Sunday, the first Health Day at a United Nations climate summit, more than 40 million health professionals from around the world joined the call to action by the World Health Organization and civil society organizations to prioritize health in the climate negotiations at COP28 now taking place in Dubai. […]

UN Security Council stands
At Risk

Gaza Hospitals Destroyed as WHO, Ambassadors Urge Ceasefire

NEW YORK, New York, November 10, 2023 (ENS) – World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today briefed an Emergency Meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the health situation in Gaza, as Israeli forces attacked hospitals, forcing thousands of civilians sheltering there to flee. […]

Covid class Lao PDR
Health

COVID-19 Global Public Health Emergency Ends: Threat Remains

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 5, 2023 (ENS) – COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization announced today, following the advice of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic. […]

doughnuts
Health

Heart Disease-Linked Trans Fats Pass WHO’s Eliminate Date

GENEVA, Switzerland, January 24, 2023 (ENS) – Five of every eight people on Earth, five billion people, remain unprotected from harmful trans fats in their food, increasing their risk of heart disease and death, a new status report from the World Health Organization, WHO, has found. In fact, trans fat intake is responsible for up to 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year globally, the UN health agency concludes. […]

Dr. Tedros WHO
Health

Monkeypox Declared a Global Public Health Emergency

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 24, 2022 (ENS) –  The ongoing multi-country outbreak of monkeypox constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared Saturday after meeting with WHO’s Monkeypox Emergency Committee. […]

Health

Animals Can Form Viral Reservoirs Where Covid Variants Breed

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 7, 2022 (ENS) – SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is still spreading among people globally as we enter the third year of the coronavirus pandemic. The risk of future variants is high and could be multiplied by the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to wildlife, resulting in the formation of animal reservoirs. […]

At Risk

Russia-Ukraine War Creates a Million Refugees, EU Admits Them

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 6, 2022 (ENS) – On a press call to Geneva from Ukraine, Poland and Moldova on Friday, United Nations officials confirmed the vast numbers of Ukrainians who have been forced from their homes since February 24 by the Russian invasion. To date, approximately 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine, with roughly as many people displaced within the country. […]

Latest News

Artificial Intelligence Ethics Approved by 193 Countries

PARIS, France, December 1, 2021 (ENS) – The first global agreement on the ethics of artificial intelligence, AI, was adopted Thursday by 193 countries. All the member states of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, adopted the historic agreement that defines the common values and principles needed to ensure the healthy development of AI. […]

Health

G20 Creates Finance-Health Task Force to Address Pandemics

ROME, Italy, October 30, 2021 (ENS) – The G20 nations are getting serious about controlling the coronavirus pandemic and any future pandemic that might arise. On Friday in their first joint meeting under the Italian G20 Presidency, the G20 Health and Finance Ministers established a joint Finance-Health Task Force to strengthen both public health measures and the funding to support them. […]

At Risk

Afghanistan Starves, Health System on ‘Brink of Collapse’

KABUL, Afghanistan, October 3, 2021 (ENS) – Some 18 million Afghans are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, health services across the country are at risk of collapse and widespread hunger stalks the arid land, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC, is warning… […]

Health

Bloomberg Healthy Cities Partnership Expands to 70 Cities

NEW YORK, New York, August 20, 2021 (ENS) – Bloomberg Philanthropies today announced a $31 million investment to bring six new cities on three continents into its Partnership for Healthy Cities network – Bucharest, Romania; Cairo, Egypt; Córdoba, Argentina; Dublin, Ireland; Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; and Warsaw, Poland. […]

swearing in
Gov/Politics

President Joe Biden Protects Environment on Day One

WASHINGTON, DC, January 20, 2021 (ENS) – “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear,” President Joe Biden declared today in his Inaugural Address on the steps of the Capitol building after he was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. […]

health
Health

Calling All Film-Makers

GENEVA, Switzerland, November 9, 2020 (ENS) – The opportunity has arrived for young film-makers to submit an original short film to the second Health for All Film Festival sponsored by the World Health Organization, WHO. The first Health for All Film Festival in 2019 was a great success, raking in a total of 1,300 short film submissions from over 110 countries. […]

Health

Virus Quarantines World Health Organization Chief

GENEVA, Switzerland, November 2, 2020 (ENS) – The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is in quarantine tonight as he has been exposed to the coronavirus he has been battling every day since early January, COVID-19. […]

food
Business

Impact Investors Confront Coronavirus Crisis

NEW YORK, New York, May 18, 2020 (ENS) – A new coalition of impact investors has come together to bring their formidable entrepreneurial skills to bear on the novel coronavirus and the deadly disease it causes, COVID-19. The coalition aims to help communities around the world weather this crisis and emerge with a renewed commitment to building a more inclusive and resilient system over the long-term. […]

von der Layden
At Risk

Global Vaccine Telethon Raises $8 Billion Without USA

BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 5, 2020 (ENS) – To battle the deadly coronavirus, six countries, the European Commission and the Bill & Melina Gates Foundation Monday pledged billions in new funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The money will support universal access to a future COVID-19 vaccine and also will support the immunization of hundreds of millions of children with existing vaccines against pneumonia, measles, and polio. […]