The negative environmental impact of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has been widely covered in the press in recent weeks and months, and their volatility has also been flagged as a cause for concern.

Millions more COVID vaccines need to be donated now to save lives and help the UN health agency reach the key global target of having 70 per cent of all national populations vaccinated, by the middle of 2022.

New research published by the UN health agency on Thursday revealed that suicide remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide – taking more lives each year than HIV, malaria, breast cancer, war and homicide.

Land is our lifeblood.

Avoiding, slowing and reversing the loss of productive land and natural ecosystems now, is both urgent and important for a swift recovery from the pandemic and for guaranteeing the long-term survival of people and the planet.

Five health workers carrying out a polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province were killed on Tuesday, and four others injured, during a series of attacks condemned by a senior UN official on the ground as brutal and “senseless”.

The health of children, adolescents and expectant mothers worldwide is at risk from the illegal processing of old electrical or electronic devices, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Ten years on from the landmark adoption of the International Labour Organization Convention that confirmed their rights, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder insisted that despite “real progress” in labour laws and social security provision in some countries, these “essential service providers” had rarely been so vulnerable in many others.

Gates delivered the McDougall Memorial Lecture, which takes place every two years and honors the legacy of Frank Lidgett McDougall, an Australian agricultural expert who was instrumental in creating FAO.

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported to the UN health agency has declined for seven weeks in a row.