Interviews

Eight million lives or more could be saved between now and 2030 if the planet’s poorest countries spent a little over $1 dollar a day per person to combat chronic diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

For the first time, the economic rewards of such funding have been calculated and shared with these nations' health authorities — $350 billion if they scale up prevention measures and treatment of common killers, including heart disease and cancer.

New research indicates that people who are genetically prone to being overweight have a higher risk of being a smoker, and they are likely to smoke more than average, according to a World Health Organization agency whose study has identified for the first time around 70 genes that could explain this behaviour.

Dr. Paul Brennan from the International Agency for Research on Cancer spoke to Daniel Johnson.

Across the world, “families are still the most important unit” we all belong to. 

That’s the message from Professor Bahira Sherif Trask, one of the keynote speakers at UN Headquarters on Tuesday, taking part in events to mark the International Day of Families.

UN agencies and their partners are supporting hospitals and health centres in Gaza as they struggle to treat scores of people injured on Monday during demonstrations at the border with Israel.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, who spent most of that day at a major hospital, told Dianne Penn that hospitals were “overwhelmed” by the numbers in need of emergency treatment.

If countries honour the Paris Agreement pledge on global warming of keeping temperature rises below 2 degrees Celsius, “we will see a net job creation of 18 million new jobs around the world.”

More than 100 top bird scientists, conservationists and policy makers met in the United Arab Emirates in April to strengthen efforts to conserve migratory birds and their habitats.

For this year’s World Migratory Bird Day on 12 May, UN News is rebroadcasting an interview Matt Wells conducted with avian expert Borja Heredia.

It’s not often that experienced aid workers concede that they’ve been deeply affected on a personal level, by a humanitarian crisis.

But that’s the case on Friday, for UN Children’s Fund spokesperson Christophe Boulierac, who’s been speaking about the desperate situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Kasai region.

It’s up to young people and civil society groups to reverse the long-term trend of deforestation around the world.

That’s the view of Hiroto Mitsugi, Assistant Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Forestry Department, discussing how deforestation can be stopped worldwide, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 15  target date, of 2020.

With monsoon rains threatening to flood Rohingya “mega camps” in Bangladesh, the World Food Programme (WFP) is leading a UN-wide effort to relocate around 30,000 refugees to higher ground.

Shelley Thakral, WFP Spokesperson in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, explained to Fatima E. Mendez how WFP and other agencies were turning hilly land donated by the government, into usable camp ground.

An “unprecedented” response to a spate of cholera outbreaks across Africa is under way but vaccinations alone will not be enough, UN health experts and partner agencies said on Monday.

Between now and June, some two million people will benefit from an inoculation drive across five countries.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Michael Ryan, told Daniel Johnson that effective as vaccines are, access to clean water and sanitation are just as important.