Despite the temptation to end the pandemic, some leading health experts say it would be better to continue living with the official designation, which keeps up the pressure on authorities and civilians alike to act with caution.
GENEVA (AN) – Everyone wants to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, perhaps none more so than the head of the World Health Organization, which first declared COVID-19 had become a global health emergency nearly three years ago.
"We need to move beyond this emergency situation sometime by the end of the year," WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told Arete News.
Climate scientists have warned for decades about bleaching of coral reefs, which are nurseries for commercial fisheries.
This year and next mark the countdown to a 2025 deadline for governments to strengthen their carbon-cutting plans.
The France-based court was created to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights, which took effect in 1953.
Negotiators and officials aim to wrap up so that May's 77th World Health Assembly can consider a proposed text.
The chair of the talks called for optimism despite divisions among plastic-producing nations and those urging restraints.
The number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity has increased every year since 2019.
The group of organizations that reviewed the U.N. agency recommends several ways of strengthening its neutrality.
The wars in Europe and the Middle East, climate change and soaring national debts hung over the annual talks.
