Explainer: How UN food security agency uses deaths and malnutrition to declare famine

Explainer: How UN food security agency uses deaths and malnutrition to declare famine

In the 21st century, climate-related famines have largely been averted thanks to an innovative tool to track acute hunger, developed during the crisis in Somalia in 2004 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and now used by humanitarian agencies worldwide. This initiative is called the Integrated Security Phase Classification or IPC.

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How Kenyan activists embarked on mission to end gender-based violence as attacks on women spike

How Kenyan activists embarked on mission to end gender-based violence as attacks on women spike

Kenya’s Demographic and Health Survey of 2023 found that more than 11 million women – or 20 per cent of the population – have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner during their lives, with 2.8 million of those women having experienced this type of violence in the last 12 months.

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Heat is on: Kenyan women among others whose plight is to be addressed in food supply chain

Heat is on: Kenyan women among others whose plight is to be addressed in food supply chain

Women are less able to adapt to heat than men, explains Kathy Baughman McLeod, chief executive of Climate Resilience. In Pakistan, hot and crowded homes cause sleepless nights for all, but cultural norms require women to stay indoors, while men can seek cooler conditions outside.

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In Gaza, Palestinians are forced to eat grass because ‘If we aren’t killed, we will die of hunger’

In Gaza, Palestinians are forced to eat grass because ‘If we aren’t killed, we will die of hunger’

The UN has been unable to deliver food aid to the north since January 23, with Israeli authorities continuing to deny access to UN aid convoys, which their troops have fired on. In late February, the World Food Programme and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, suspended aid delivery in the north, saying it had become impossible to operate safely.

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Research: Junk food addicts with high ‘bliss point’ usually have low appetite for fresh fruits, vegetables and beans

Research: Junk food addicts with high ‘bliss point’ usually have low appetite for fresh fruits, vegetables and beans

A 2023 research report published in the journal Addiction found that: “Tobacco-owned foods were 29 per cent more likely to be classified as fat and sodium hyper-palatable food (HPF) and 80 per cent more likely to be classified as carbohydrate and sodium HPF than foods that were not tobacco-owned between 1988 and 2001.

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Junk food addiction: How Big Food hooks you just as cigarettes and cocaine trigger cravings

Junk food addiction: How Big Food hooks you just as cigarettes and cocaine trigger cravings

Along with speed, “addiction is also deeply enmeshed with memory and the memories we create for food are typically stronger and longer lasting than any other substance. Childhood memories of food can wield an uncanny power over our eating habits for the rest of our lives.”

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Why in Senegal’s capital Nicaragua is popular flight path for illegal migrants headed for US

Why in Senegal’s capital Nicaragua is popular flight path for illegal migrants headed for US

US authorities arrested Senegalese migrants 20,231 times for crossing the border illegally from July to December. That’s a 10-fold increase from 2,049 arrests during the same period of 2022, according to US Customs and Border Protection. Many like Ba cross in remote deserts of western Arizona and California.

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Without an effective government and at the mercy of roaming criminals, Haitians are taking security in their own hands

Without an effective government and at the mercy of roaming criminals, Haitians are taking security in their own hands

Fighting for their right to live peacefully is what Jonel Joseph and Jean-Denis Petitpha have been doing since the night of April 24, 2023, when around 3am they heard gunfire ring through their southern Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Canapé-Vert.

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As Haitian PM Henry visited Kenya and US pushed for police mission, sceptical Haitians were seeking to rebuild their country

As Haitian PM Henry visited Kenya and US pushed for police mission, sceptical Haitians were seeking to rebuild their country

Since 400 Mawozo opened fire on a public minibus on February 18, killing 10 people in one of a string of recent attacks, buses have been unable to pass, and Lafontant Chipps is now waiting impatiently for the route to reopen.

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War architecture: How robots are fighting robots in Russia’s war in Ukraine

War architecture: How robots are fighting robots in Russia’s war in Ukraine

Videos produced by Ukrainian and Russian soldiers show the drones, which are often first-person view (FPV) drones, being used to attack tanks and troops. As the war has raged on, another kind of robot has increasingly appeared in recent months: the unmanned ground vehicle or UGV.

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