Palestinian request for UN membership moves on to specialized committee
The proposal for the referral, made by Ambassador Vanessa Frazier of Malta, Security Council President for April, received no objections from the body’s 15 members. “Unless I hear a proposal to the contrary, I shall refer to the Committee of…
Huge crowds await total solar eclipse in North America
MESQUITE, Texas — Millions of spectators along a narrow corridor stretching from Mexico to the U.S. to Canada eagerly awaited Monday’s celestial sensation — a total eclipse of the sun — even as forecasters called for clouds. The best weather…
IAEA chief calls Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant attack a ‘serious incident’
Russia and Ukraine continue to trade blame over Sunday’s drone attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, which injured three people, one of them seriously. Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Monday called the attacks “a…
Mass bleaching detected on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
SYDNEY — Vast areas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s biggest coral system, have been affected by mass coral bleaching caused by a marine heatwave. Surveys have shown major bleaching is occurring along the 2,300-kilometer ecosystem. Bleaching on the…
Ukraine denies Russian claim it struck Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Kyiv dismissed Russian claims that Ukraine was behind the drone attacks Sunday on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, that injured three people, one of them seriously. “Ukraine is not involved in any kind of armed provocations on the territory of…
Despite Google Earth, people still buy globes. What’s the appeal?
London — Find a globe in your local library or classroom and try this: Close the eyes, spin it and drop a finger randomly on its curved, glossy surface. You’re likely to pinpoint a spot in the water, which covers…
Getting children back to school in deadly gang-ravaged Haiti
Students in the capital Port-au-Prince have missed hundreds of hours of class time over the past year and now, now, more than one million Haitians are facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity, according to a new UN-backed report. As deadly…
Ecuador-Mexico: ‘Cardinal principle’ of diplomatic inviolability must be upheld says UN chief
In a statement released on Saturday night, António Guterres said he was alarmed by the raid on the embassy in the capital Quito which led to the arrest of Jorge Glas. The Secretary-General “reaffirms the cardinal principle of the inviolability…
Hope grows for UN mission to ‘flood’ Gaza with food, despite fears of imminent Rafah invasion
That’s according to the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick, speaking in-depth to UN News exactly six months since hostilities began with the Hamas-led terror attack. He underlined that the entire UN aid effort is about saving…
In much of Africa, abortion is legal but not advertised
ACCRA, Ghana — When Efua, a 25-year-old fashion designer and single mother in Ghana, became pregnant last year, she sought an abortion at a health clinic but worried the procedure might be illegal. Health workers assured her abortions were lawful…