NAIROBI & JOHANNESBURG, October 29 (IPS) - Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica yesterday—the strongest hurricane to impact the island on record since 1851—with expectations of tens of thousands of people being displaced and devastating damage to infrastructure. The tropical storm, slightly downgraded but nevertheless devastating, made landfall in Cuba today as UNEP’s newly released Adaptation Gap Report 2025: Running on Empty shows that the finance needed for developing countries to adapt to the climate crisis is falling far behind their needs.
Developing countries are receiving less than 10 per cent of the money they need to adapt to a world increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather – putting lives, livelihoods and entire economies at risk, the UN revealed on Wednesday.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday has – for the 33rd consecutive year – adopted a resolution calling for an end to the decades-long United States embargo against Cuba.
As Hurricane Melissa moved north of Jamaica on Wednesday, the head of the UN team there said that preliminary damage assessments from the category 5 storm showed a level of devastation “never seen before” on the Caribbean island.
South Sudan faces a renewed slide into full-scale conflict unless urgent international action is taken, the UN-appointed independent investigative body examining human rights there warned on Wednesday.
Mounting nuclear risks – from Ukraine’s war-torn power plants to Iran’s unresolved safeguards, and renewed inspection efforts in Syria – are testing the global non-proliferation regime like never before, the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned on Wednesday.
The UN Secretary-General has strongly condemned the killing of civilians, including children, in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight into Wednesday, calling for all parties to uphold their commitments to the fragile ceasefire