United News of Bangladesh

More than 280 million people have left their countries to pursue opportunity, dignity, freedom, and a better life, the UN said on International Migrants Day Sunday. Secretary-General António Guterres credited more than 80 percent of those who cross borders in a safe and orderly fashion as powerful drivers of economic growth, dynamism, and understanding. "But unregulated migration along increasingly perilous routes – the cruel realm of traffickers – continues to extract a terrible cost." Over the past eight years, at least 51,000 migrants have died, and thousands of others have gone missing, said the top UN official. "Behind each number is a human being – a sister, brother, daughter, son, mother, or father," he said. "Migrant rights are human rights." Read: US Asst Secretary Noyes in Bangladesh to discuss refugee, migration issues "They must be respected without discrimination – and irrespective of whether their movement is forced, voluntary, or formally authorised." Guterres pushed for search and rescue efforts, medical care, expanded and diversified rights-based pathways for migration, and greater international investments in countries of origin to ensure migration is a choice, not a necessity. Gilbert F Houngbo, the head of the International Labour Organization (ILO), shone a light on protecting the rights of the world's 169 million migrant workers. "The international community must do better to ensure… [that they] are able to realise their basic human and labour rights." Leaving them unable to exercise basic rights renders migrant workers invisible, vulnerable and undervalued for their contributions to society, said the most senior ILO official. And when intersecting with race, ethnicity, and gender, they become even more vulnerable to various forms of discrimination. Houngbo said migrants do not only go missing on high-risk and desperate journeys. "Many migrant domestic, agricultural and other workers are isolated and out of reach of those who could protect them, with the undocumented, particularly at risk of abuse." Read: COP27: FM calls for collective action to mainstream climate-induced migration in negotiations Like all employees, migrant workers are entitled to labour standards and international human rights protections, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, non-discrimination, and safe and healthy working environments, said the ILO chief. They should also be entitled to social protection, development and recognition, he added. To make these rights a reality, Houngbo stressed the key importance of fair recruitment, including eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers, which can help eradicate human trafficking and forced labour.

Elon Musk's abrupt suspension of several journalists who cover Twitter widens a growing rift between the social media site and media organizations that have used the platform to build their audiences. Individual reporters with The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other news agencies saw their accounts go dark Thursday. Musk tweeted late Friday that the company would lift the suspensions following the results of a public poll on the site. The poll showed 58.7% of respondents favored a move to immediately unsuspend accounts over 41.3% who said the suspensions should be lifted in seven days. The company has not explained why the accounts were taken down. But Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to accuse journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts, which he described as “basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim. Many advertisers abandoned Twitter over content moderation questions after Musk acquired it in October, and he now risks a rupture with media organizations, which are among the most active on the platform. Most of the accounts were back early Saturday. One exception was Business Insider's Linette Lopez, who was suspended after the other journalists, also with no explanation, she told The Associated Press. Lopez published a series of articles between 2018 and 2021 highlighting what she called dangerous Tesla manufacturing shortcomings. Shortly before being suspended, she said she had posted court-related documents to Twitter that included a 2018 Musk email address. That address is not current, Lopez said, because “he changes his email every few weeks." On Tuesday, she posted a 2019 story about Tesla troubles, commenting, “Now, just like then, most of @elonmusk’s wounds are self inflicted.” The same day, she cited reports that Musk was reneging on severance for laid-off Twitter employees, threatening workers who talk to the media and refusing to make rent payments. Lopez described his actions as “classic Elon-going-for-broke behavior.” Steve Herman, a national correspondent for Voice of America, told The Associated Press that his suspended Twitter account still hadn't been fully restored as of Saturday afternoon because of his refusal to delete three tweets that the company flagged for purportedly sharing Musk's whereabouts. Although Herman's Twitter timeline is now visible to most users, he said he can't see it himself nor can he post anything new until he removes the tweets that the company contends violate its revised terms of service. “I am in a new level of purgatory," Herman said. “I do not believe anything I have tweeted violated any reasonable standard of any social media platform." Read more: Twitter suspends journalists who wrote about owner Elon Musk Alarm over the suspensions extended beyond media circles to the United Nations, which was reconsidering its involvement in Twitter. The move sets “a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The reporters' suspensions followed Musk’s decision Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data. That also led Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent. Several of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been writing about the new policy and Musk's rationale for imposing it, which involved his allegations about a stalking incident he said affected his family Tuesday night in Los Angeles. The official Twitter account for Mastodon, a decentralized alternative social network where many Twitter users are fleeing, was also banned. The reason was unclear, though it had tweeted about the jet-tracking account. Twitter also began preventing users from posting links to Mastodon accounts, in some cases flagging them as potential malware. “This is of course a bald-faced lie,” cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs posted. Explaining the reporter bans, Musk tweeted, “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else." He later added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.” " Doxxing ” refers to disclosing someone’s identity, address, phone number or other personal details that violate their privacy and could bring harm. The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said technology reporter Drew Harwell “was banished without warning, process or explanation” following the publication of accurate reporting about Musk. CNN said in a statement that “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.” “Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” the statement added. Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of the technology news outlet Mashable, said he was banned Thursday night immediately after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted before his own suspension. The screenshot showed a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier Thursday to multiple media outlets, including the AP, about how it was in touch with Musk's representatives about the alleged stalking incident. Binder said he did not share any location data or any links to the jet-tracking account or other location-tracking accounts. “I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter’s listed policies,” Binder said in an email. The suspensions come as Musk makes major changes to content moderation on Twitter. He has tried, through the release of selected company documents dubbed “The Twitter Files,” to claim the platform suppressed right-wing voices under its previous leaders. Read more: Elon Musk sells $3.58B worth of Tesla stock, purpose unknown He has promised to let free speech reign and has reinstated high-profile accounts that previously broke Twitter's rules against hateful conduct or harmful misinformation. He has also said he would suppress negativity and hate by depriving some accounts of “freedom of reach.” Opinion columnist Bari Weiss, who tweeted out some of “The Twitter Files,” called for the suspended journalists to be reinstated. “The old regime at Twitter governed by its own whims and biases and it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem,” she tweeted “I oppose it in both cases.” If the suspensions lead to the exodus of media organizations that are highly active on Twitter, the platform would be changed at the fundamental level, said Lou Paskalis, longtime marketing and media executive and former Bank of America head of global media. CBS briefly shut down its activity on Twitter in November due to “uncertainty” about new management, but media organizations have largely remained on the platform. “We all know news breaks on Twitter ... and to now go after journalists really saws at the main foundational tent pole of Twitter,” Paskalis said. “Driving journalists off Twitter is the biggest self-inflicted wound I can think of.” The suspensions may be the biggest red flag yet for advertisers, Paskalis said, some of which had already cut their spending on Twitter over uncertainty about the direction Musk is taking the platform. “It is an overt demonstration of what advertisers fear the most — retribution for an action that Elon doesn’t agree with," he added. On Thursday night, Twitter's Spaces conference chat went down shortly after Musk abruptly signed out of a session hosted by a journalist during which he had been questioned about the reporters' ousting. Musk later tweeted that Spaces had been taken offline to deal with a “Legacy bug.” Late Friday, Spaces returned. Advertisers are also monitoring the potential loss of Twitter users. Twitter is projected to lose 32 million users over the next two years, according to a forecast by Insider Intelligence, which cited technical issues and the return of accounts banned for offensive posts. Meanwhile, some Twitter alternatives are gaining momentum. Mastodon on Friday had more than 6 million users, nearly double the 3.4 million it had on the day Musk took ownership of Twitter. On many of the thousands of confederated networks in the open-source Mastodon platform, administrators and users solicited donations as disaffected Twitter users strained computing resources. Many of the networks, known as “instances,” are crowd-funded. The platform is designed to be ad-free.

Two students were killed and two other teens were wounded in a shooting Friday afternoon near a high school on Chicago's West Side, authorities said. Chicago fire officials said the four 16-year-olds were shot near Benito Juarez High School. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown, speaking at a news conference, confirmed the deaths of two of the victims. Police spokesman Tom Ahern said the four were shot outside the school. Police and paramedics responded to the shooting shortly before 3 p.m. Friday. A Chicago Fire Department spokesperson said all four were taken to the same hospital. One boy was pronounced dead on arrival, another boy was in critical condition, and two other teens, a boy and a girl, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Ahern initially said. Also read: Vigil planned after 2 killed, 4 wounded in campus shooting Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez also appeared at the news conference, saying, “We want to first make sure we have the victims in our prayers." The school system, also known as CPS, released a statement saying in part that “the safety of our school community is our top priority." It added the system's safety and security office was working with school officials and school leaders to gather information on what happened.

A thunderous crush of soil and debris killed 21 people at a campground in Malaysia on Friday, and rescuers dug through the mud in the night for another 12 who were feared buried in the landslide. More than 90 people were sleeping on an organic farm when the dirt tumbled from a road about 30 meters (100 feet) above the site and covered about 1 hectare (3 acres). Two of the dead were found locked in an embrace, according to the state fire department chief. Authorities told local media that the landowners did not have a license to run a campground. At least seven people were hospitalized and dozens more were rescued unharmed, said district police chief Suffian Abdullah. Leong Jim Meng told the New Straits Times English-language daily that he and his family were awakened by a loud bang and felt the earth move at the campsite in Batang Kali, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital of Kuala Lumpur. “My family and I were trapped as soil covered our tent. We managed to escape to a carpark area and heard a second landslide happening,” the 57-year-old was quoted as saying. He said it was surprising because there was no heavy rain in recent days, only light drizzles. Also read: Landslide kills four of a family in Cox's Bazar's Ramu It is currently the season for monsoon rains in Malaysia, and the country's government development minister, Nga Kor Ming, said all campsites nationwide that are near rivers, waterfalls and hillsides would be closed for a week to assess their safety. The Selangor state fire department posted photos of rescuers digging through soil and rubble with an excavator and shovels. Officials said the rubble is believed to be 8 meters (26 feet) deep. More than 400 rescuers as well as tracking dogs are set to work through the night to find the dozen people still missing. Selangor state fire chief Norazam Khamis was cited by the Free Malaysia Today news portal as saying that two of the bodies found were “hugging each other” and believed to be mother and daughter. The fire department said five children were among those who perished. An estimated 450,000 cubic meters (nearly 16 million cubic feet) of debris — enough to fill 180 Olympic-sized swimming pools — hit the campsite, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, the natural resources, environment and climate change minister, told local media. Suffian, the district police chief, said the victims entered the area, a popular recreational site for locals to pitch or rent tents from the farm, on Wednesday. The campsite is not far from the Genting Highlands hill resort, a popular tourist destination with theme parks and Malaysia’s only casino. After visiting the site late Friday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a special payment to the families of those killed as well as survivors. Nga told local media that the campsite has been operating illegally for the past two years. The operator has government approval to run an organic farm but has no license for camping activities, he said. If found guilty, Nga warned, the camp operator could face up to three years in prison and a fine.

Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the social media platform and its new owner Elon Musk, among them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. The company hasn’t explained to the journalists why it took down the accounts and made their profiles and past tweets disappear. But Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to accuse journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts that he described as “basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim. The sudden suspension of news reporters followed Musk’s decision Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data. That also led Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent. Several of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been writing about that new policy and Musk’s rationale for imposing it, which involved his allegations about a stalking incident he said affected his family on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” Musk tweeted Thursday. He later added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.” “Doxxing” refers to disclosing online someone’s identity, address, or other personal details. The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, called for technology reporter Drew Harwell’s Twitter account to be reinstated immediately. The suspension “directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech,” Buzbee wrote. “Harwell was banished without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk.” CNN said in a statement that “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.” Read more: Musk's Twitter tweaks foreshadow EU showdown over new rules “Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” CNN’s statement added. “We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.” Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of the technology news outlet Mashable, said he was banned Thursday night immediately after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted before the CNN reporter’s suspension. The screenshot showed a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier Thursday to multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press, about how it was in touch with Musk’s representatives about the alleged stalking incident, but that no crime report had yet been filed. “I did not share any location data, as per Twitter’s new terms. Nor did I share any links to ElonJet or other location tracking accounts,” Binder said in an email. “I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter’s listed policies.” Binder said a message he received while trying to access his Twitter account showed that his suspension was permanent. But Musk later suggested the penalty would last a week in response to a question about his suspension of former ESPN and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann. Late Thursday, Musk briefly joined a Twitter Spaces conference chat hosted by journalist Kate Notopoulos of Buzzfeed. He reiterated his claims that the journalists Twitter banned were “doxxing” him when they were reporting on the jet tracking accounts being banned. “There is not special treatment for journalists,” Musk said, after being asked by the Post’s Drew Harwell if he had a connection between the stalking incident and posting of real-time information. “You dox, you get suspended, end of story,” he added, before abruptly signing out. Read more: Musk's Twitter disbands its Trust and Safety advisory group Another suspended reporter, Steve Herman of Voice of America, said he assumes he was banned “because I was tweeting about other journalists being suspended for tweeting about accounts being booted that had linked to the Elon Jet feed.” The suspensions come as Musk makes major changes to content moderation on Twitter. He has tried, through the release of selected company documents dubbed as “The Twitter Files,” to claim the platform suppressed right-wing voices under its previous leaders. He has promised to let free speech reign and has reinstated high-profile accounts that previously broke Twitter’s rules against hateful conduct or harmful misinformation, but also has said he would suppress negativity and hate by depriving some accounts of “freedom of reach.” The nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, which defends journalists around the world, said Thursday night it was concerned about the suspensions. “If confirmed as retaliation for their work, this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal,” the group said.

Self-proclaimed free speech warrior Elon Musk’s more unfettered version of Twitter could collide with new rules in Europe, where officials warn that the social media company will have to comply with some of the world’s toughest laws targeting toxic content. While the new digital rulebook means the European Union is likely to be a global leader in cracking down on Musk’s reimagined platform, the 27-nation bloc will face its own challenges forcing Twitter and other online companies to comply. The law doesn’t fully take effect until 2024, and EU officials are scrambling to recruit enough workers to hold Big Tech to account. Known as the Digital Services Act, the EU's sweeping set of rules aims to make platforms and search engines more accountable for illegal and harmful content including hate speech, scams and disinformation. They'll kick in next summer for the biggest digital companies like Google, Facebook and TikTok and then expand to all online services the following year. Those standards are poised to run up against Musk's whipsawing policies at Twitter: He abruptly axed a group of advisers this week who address problems like hate speech, child exploitation and self-harm, halved Twitter's workforce and issued conflicting decisions about content moderation. “A lot can change in six months, but it sure seems like Twitter is lining up to be Europe’s first major test case when it comes to enforcing the DSA,” said John Albert of Berlin-based AlgorithmWatch, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. Musk has called for “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach,” saying he wants to downgrade negative and hateful posts. The billionaire Tesla CEO considers the bloc's rules “a sensible approach to implement on a worldwide basis,” EU digital policy chief Thierry Breton recounted after a video call with Musk this month. Other jurisdictions are far behind Europe. In the U.S., Silicon Valley lobbyists have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers at bay, and Congress has been politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more. Britain is working on its own Online Safety Bill, but it was recently watered down and not clear when it will be approved. Musk’s style of making ad hoc changes won't fly under the new European rulebook, experts said. Read more: Musk's Twitter disbands its Trust and Safety advisory group Twitter’s disastrous rollout of paid “verified" blue checks likely would have triggered an EU investigation and possibly big fines because such major design changes wouldn't be allowed without a risk assessment, Albert said. The premium service was abandoned last month after a flood of imposter accounts spread disinformation. It relaunched this week. The abrupt disbanding of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council also would “raise some eyebrows in Brussels,” Albert said. Expert advisers aren’t required under the EU rules, but “good-faith voluntary efforts" show “European regulators that you care about transparency and are invested in trust and safety,” he said. Musk's tinkering — including dropping enforcement of COVID-19 misinformation rules and granting amnesty to suspended accounts — has already alarmed European officials. Musk’s approach is “a big issue” that calls for “more regulation,” French President Emmanuel Macron told “Good Morning America." In Europe, “you can demonstrate you can have free speech, you can write what you want. But there is responsibilities and limits,” he said. Macron, who met with Musk in the U.S. this month, tweeted that “efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations.” The bloc will require online companies to follow clear rules on dealing with illegal content and explain to users why the material was taken down or given a warning label. They will have to be transparent about the workings of their content moderation systems and recommendation algorithms, which suggest the next song, news story or product to users. They must let EU regulators review their efforts. Breton, the EU’s digital policy chief, said he reminded Musk about the penalties for violations, including fines worth 6% of global annual revenue that could reach billions. Repeat violations could result in an EU-wide ban. Musk and Twitter didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Musk is already “backtracking on the absolutism” of free speech by suspending the rapper formerly known as Kanye West for a swastika post, said Marietje Schaake, a former European Parliament lawmaker who’s now international cyber policy director at Stanford University. “The problem is that there is a lot of hateful content below this threshold, which will make Twitter under Musk less safe and pleasant for women, minorities and people whose opinions are met with aggression,” Schaake said. To tackle such “lawful but awful” content that frequently bedevils content moderators, the EU will require extra scrutiny for the biggest online platforms — those with 45 million monthly users. There’s speculation Twitter might not qualify. It reported 238 million users before it was bought by Musk, who complained that the number of fake accounts was vastly understated. Companies have to report their user numbers to the EU by mid-February. Big platforms will have to assess how they’re dealing with “systemic risks,” such as harassment, election-related disinformation, hoaxes and manipulation during pandemics. By the summer, the first changes stemming from the rules should start appearing via digital “buttons” on websites and apps so users can easily flag illegal content. The wide-ranging rulebook also poses a challenge for regulators who need to hire enough enforcers. EU officials have estimated they will add more than 100 full-time staff by 2024 to enforce the DSA and other new rules on digital competition. Each of the 27 EU countries also will have to hire more people to police smaller platforms and coordinate with Brussels. On top of that, tech companies need to recruit more compliance staff. All three groups will be hiring for very specific and similar skill sets: experts who know how platforms and their algorithms work, have insight into sites' content moderation practices and have experience enforcing regulations. Read more: ‘Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!’: Musk tweets The problem is they “might end up competing for the same talents,” said Rita Jonusaite, advocacy coordinator at EU DisinfoLab, a nonprofit group that researches disinformation. There are concerns some European countries won’t have the means and expertise to enforce the rules, especially if they’re building skills in areas like disinformation from scratch. “Regulators need to train themselves and acquire capacity very quickly,” Jonusaite said. The EU’s executive Commission has launched a recruitment spree for dozens of expert jobs, including legal officers, data scientists, technology specialists, and digital policy officers to help supervise the systems that online platforms use to combat illegal content such as terrorist or child sexual abuse material and to fight harmful posts like disinformation. Meanwhile, Musk axed thousands of employees and many others resigned, including those in content moderation roles. It's unclear whether he plans to add staff to comply with Europe's rules. “As Musk is scrambling to both save money, comply with the law, and keep advertisers on board, the main question is whether he will dedicate the needed resources to monitor content at all,” said Schaake of Stanford. “It is one thing to make a conscious decision to leave racist content up, it is another to have it be up unnoticed" because teams monitoring content “are simply not there,” she said.

A key U.N. committee has again blocked Myanmar’s military junta from taking the country’s seat at the United Nations, two well-informed U.N. diplomats said Wednesday. The General Assembly’s credentials committee met Monday and deferred action on the junta’s request, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity before a formal announcement likely later this week. The decision means that Kyaw Moe Tun, who was Myanmar’s ambassador at the United Nations when the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, will remain on the job. Last December, Myanmar’s military rulers also failed in their effort to replace Tun, who remains a supporter of the previous government and the opposition National Unity Government, which opposes the junta. Chris Gunness, director of the London-based Myanmar Accountability Project, welcomed the credentials committee's move, saying it has “great diplomatic and symbolic significance, at a time when the illegal coup leaders are attempting to gain international recognition.” Also read: Myanmar’s military govt ‘willing to take back Rohingyas’ after verification: Momen “General Min Aung Hlaing has inflicted on the people of Myanmar violence of a scale not seen in southeast Asia since Pol Pot unleashed the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror on Cambodia,” Gunness said in a statement. Damian Lilly, an Accountability Project official, urged the United Nations to ensure that Tun is afforded all U.N. rights and privileges and that the National Unity Government “is allowed to represent Myanmar in all UN bodies.” “At present, there are glaring inconsistencies,” he said, with Tun sitting in the 193-member General Assembly while Myanmar’s seat at the U.N. Human Rights Council is empty. Lilly said the credentials committee’s action “must pave the way to resolving these anomalies which are depriving 55 million people in Myanmar of the opportunity to be represented at the U.N. by the government which they elected by a landslide in 2020.” Suu Kyi, who was arrested when the military seized power from her elected government, has been sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment and faces additional charges. Rights groups and supporters of Suu Kyi say the charges against her are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power while preventing her from returning to politics.  

The UN trade facilitation agency has said global trade is set to hit a record high of $32 trillion for 2022, but inflation has reversed some of the gains made in recent months. The global growth turned negative during the second half of 2022, UNCTAD added. "Trade in goods and services is expected to reach $25 trillion and $7 trillion, respectively, by the end of the year. The downturn began in the third quarter of the year, with goods trading about one percent lower than from March to May," the UN agency said. Although services increased by 1.3 percent in the third quarter, both goods and services are expected to fall in value in the run-up to the end of the year, according to the latest global trade update of UNCTAD. Demand for foreign goods proved resilient through 2022, with trade volumes overall increasing by three percent. Trade volumes of east Asian economies have shown resilience, while South-South trade lagged during the third quarter. Read more: Bangladesh govt aims to increase money supply over next two fiscals Overall, geopolitical frictions, persisting inflation, and lower global demand are expected to negatively affect global trade during 2023, UNCTAD said.

As humanitarian needs soar to unprecedented levels, top UN officials on Friday highlighted the importance of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in supporting emergencies and responding rapidly to crises, calling it "a lifeline of hope." According to the recently released Global Humanitarian Overview, 339 million people will need emergency assistance next year – 65 million more people than this year – a 25 percent increase and the highest number ever recorded. "We all face difficult economic times. But the most vulnerable people are hit hardest. CERF is the tried and tested way to help them," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at a major pledging event. CERF prioritises those most likely to be marginalised and left behind, including people with disabilities, older people, women and girls. "Last year, over half of the beneficiaries were women and girls, and close to six percent were people with disabilities. CERF spending on protection reached a record of more than $84 million," according to the UN. Read: CERF allocates $9 million to Rohingya response in Bangladesh "This year, it has ensured that hundreds of thousands of women in Lebanon, Somalia and other countries, receive services related to gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive healthcare." So far this year, CERF has allocated more than $700 million to support millions in need of urgent assistance throughout some 40 countries. This included kick-starting operations in Ukraine on February 24, the date of Russia's invasion, as well as rapidly responding to weather-related emergencies, such as in Cuba, which was hit by Hurricane Ian, and supporting recovery in Pakistan following the devastating floods and landslides there. In 2022, CERF also provided $200 million to address worsening food insecurity in the most-affected countries, as well as $250 million towards critically underfunded humanitarian operations in 23 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Read: Rohingya crisis: CERF allocates $3mn to NGOs for COVID-19 response For 2023, 39 donors announced $409 million in CERF contributions, falling just short of the $467.7 million pledged at last year's event. However, additional funding is anticipated as several donors announced that pledges are forthcoming. CERF's member state-agreed annual funding target of $1 billion has never been achieved.At the pledging event, Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said the high level of humanitarian needs outstrips the resources available. "Next year must be the year of solidarity."

Over 50 percent of life-threatening bacterial infections are becoming resistant to treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said in its new report. Also, high levels of resistance to treatment are reported in bacteria frequently causing bloodstream infections in hospitals, according to the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System report, published Friday, based on 2020 data from 87 countries. Antimicrobial resistance undermines modern medicine and puts millions of lives at risk, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Within the context of national testing coverage, the report, for the first time, analyses antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rates, tracking trends in 27 countries since 2017. It reveals high levels of bacteria resistance, frequently causing life-threatening bloodstream infections in hospitals, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp, which require treatment with last-resort antibiotics, such as carbapenems. However, eight percent of those infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae were resistant to carbapenems, increasing the risk of death. Bacterial infections are becoming increasingly resistant to treatments, with over 60 percent of Neisseria gonorrhoea infections, a common sexually transmitted disease, showing resistance to ciprofloxacin, one of the most widely used oral antibacterials. Read: WHO: Digital app released to boost physical activity, help get children moving And over 20 percent of E.coli isolates, the most common pathogen in urinary tract infections, were resistant to ampicillin and co-trimoxazole, first-line drugs, as well as second-line treatments known as fluoroquinolones. Although most antimicrobial resistance trends have remained stable over the past four years, bloodstream infections due to resistant E.coli, Salmonella, and gonorrhoea infections have jumped by at least 15 percent compared to 2017 rates. More research is needed to discover why AMR has increased and the extent to which infections are related to hospitalisations and antibiotic treatments during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the UN health agency. The pandemic also meant that several countries were unable to report data for 2020, it added."To truly understand the extent of the global threat and mount an effective public health response to AMR, we must scale up microbiology testing and provide quality-assured data across all countries, not just wealthier ones," Tedros said. New analyses show that countries with lower testing coverage – mostly low and middle-income countries (LMICs) – are more likely to report significantly higher AMR rates for "bug-drug" combinations. This may be partly because only a limited number of referral hospitals in many LMICs provide data for the WHO report. Read: Health must be at the centre in COP27 climate change negotiations: WHO These hospitals often care for the sickest patients who may have received previous antibiotic treatment. Meanwhile, in terms of antibiotic consumption, 65 percent of 27 reporting countries met the WHO's target of ensuring that at least 60 percent of antimicrobials are first or second-line treatments. "These 'ACCESS' antibiotics are effective in a wide range of infections with a relatively low risk of creating resistance. However, insufficient testing coverage and weak laboratory capacity, particularly in LMICs, make AMR rates difficult to interpret," the UN agency said.