Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo surgery for a hernia on Sunday, his office announced, during which time he’ll be under full anesthesia.
Yariv Levin, deputy prime minister and minister of justice, will fill in as prime minister while Netanyahu is under anesthesia, the office said.
The hernia was discovered Saturday night during a routine checkup, after which it was decided Netanyahu would undergo surgery, the prime minister’s office said.
ROME and LONDON — Pope Francis on Sunday presided over an Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square and later used his Easter message on Christianity’s holiest day to invoke prayers for victims of war and to call for an end to ongoing conflicts.
Francis delivered his Easter message and blessing — the Urbi et Orbi, or “to the city and the world” blessing — that also included a call for the return of hostages and prisoners of war.
“Jesus alone opens up before us the doors of life, those doors that continually we shut with the wars spreading throughout the world,” he said, speaking in Italian.
He said his “thoughts go especially to the victims” of ongoing conflicts, including the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza, and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on 7 October last and for an immediate cease-fire in the Strip,” he said.
Speaking at the Vatican after concelebrating the mass with about 350 cardinals, bishops and priests, Francis called for an exchange of prisoners in the Russia-Ukraine war. He called for an end to fighting in other conflicts, including those in Haiti, Syria and elsewhere.
“On this day when we celebrate the life given us in the resurrection of the Son, let us remember the infinite love of God for each of us: a love that overcomes every limit and every weakness,” he said.
He said he hoped for peace between Israel and Lebanon, as well as between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And he said leaders in the Western Balkans should seek “enrichment” from their differences as some in the region move closer “towards integration in the European project.”
The pontiff also asked for peace throughout Africa, noting the ongoing fighting “in Sudan and in the entire region of the Sahel, in the Horn of Africa, in the region of Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the province of Capo Delgado in Mozambique.”
He asked God to “bring an end to the prolonged situation of drought which affects vast areas and provokes famine and hunger” in the horn of Africa.
Francis, 87, had arrived in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday two days after he skipped the Way of the Cross procession on Good Friday. He skipped that ceremony “to preserve his health” so that he’d be able to attend the Easter Saturday vigil and Sunday Mass and blessing, the Vatican press office said in a statement on Friday.
Francis has been battling breathing difficulties after a cold and flu this year, but papal Easter ceremonies are a test for a young man.
Sunday’s Mass, commemorating the day Cristians believe Jesus Christ was resurrected, began at 10 a.m. with the pope seated in the square in front of the altar. He stood to introduce the mass, then sat during much of the proceedings. In front of him, tens of thousands of worshipers filled the Vatican’s main square under a mostly overcast sky.
The pontiff followed Sunday’s Mass with a tour of Saint Peter’s Square in a white open-topped vehicle. He appeared relaxed and in good spirits as he waved to the throngs of faithful, many of which called out to him as he passed.
Moments later, the pope imparted his Urbi et Orbi blessing from the central loggia of St. Peter’s façade.
“Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction? War is always an absurdity and a defeat!” he said. “Let us not allow the strengthening winds of war to blow on Europe and the Mediterranean. Let us not yield to the logic of weapons and rearming. Peace is never made with arms, but with outstretched hands and open hearts.”
(GAZA) — Some children in Gaza are going to sleep thinking they may die amid the ongoing fighting in the Israel-Hamas war, according to an official with the U.N. organization focused on delivering aid to children.
“You lie in bed and the building shakes and you feel like you’re lying in a coffin,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, speaking from Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, told ABC News on March 27. “You don’t know what’s going to happen, if you’re going to get hit.”
More than five months into the war, Elder said a cease-fire and getting more aid into Gaza is critical, “A cease-fire means a child will go to bed with knowledge that they will wake up.”
International organizations have said it has been challenging getting aid into Gaza, something Elder said he is frustrated by, describing how parents are standing over their “desperately emaciated” children, while there is a crossing 10 to 15 minutes away.
He said Israel has a legal responsibility to allow more aid into Gaza and that many other aid agencies agree Israel’s restrictions mean a fraction of the supplies needed are reaching Gaza.
Israel, with the support of Egypt, has restricted the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza since the terrorist group Hamas came to power in 2007.
Those restrictions tightened following Hamas’ surprise terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing at least 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 72,000 others have been injured in Gaza since then, amid Israel’s ongoing ground operations and aerial bombardment of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has previously said Israel doesn’t provide enough authorization to deliver sufficient aid and, even when it does give authorization, the fighting makes it difficult to deliver that aid.
Israeli officials have claimed Hamas steals aid once it enters Gaza and said looting is also a problem. Israel continues to deny all accusations that it isn’t letting enough aid into Gaza and encourages other countries to send in aid, with Israeli officials saying the U.N., its partners and other aid agencies have created logistical challenges, resulting in a bottleneck. Hamas disputes the claims that it steals aid and the U.N. disputes the claims that it is responsible for the bottleneck.
n a recent report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative said famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza. On Friday, Israel’s Civil Department of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) dismissed the report, saying it paints an “inaccurate” image of famine in the Gaza Strip and said Israel does not place any limit on the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the Gaza Strip.
Elder said people on the streets approach him explaining how they need water and medicine. He added that he believes because of the trauma of this war, every child will now require some kind of mental health support.
“You talk to adolescent girls and some of them say, ‘I want to die. I want this to be over,’ and it’s not an out-of-the-ordinary comment anymore,” Elder said.
Save the Children President and CEO Janti Soeripto is also sounding the alarm on the mental health crisis children in Gaza are facing.
“One of the women I spoke to today told me, and that’s something I’ve never heard before in another crisis, she said, ‘We need more mental health support than we need food,”’ Soeripto told ABC News.
“So that tells you something about the needs here and the absolute utter desperation and utter inadequacy of humanitarian assistance that’s making its way to vulnerable people,” she added.
Soeripto said there is a long list of diseases and complications arising from the dire conditions under which children in Gaza are living, including hepatitis, diarrhea, rashes and wounds that are not healing properly.
“We see a lot of health problems that can spiral out of control if you don’t treat them,” said Soeripto, “And of course, we have this massive wave of children that ultimately will need special treatment for malnutrition.”
Earlier this week, the U.N. Security Council voted to adopt a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire for the remaining days of Ramadan, the holy month observed by Muslims, and the immediate unconditional release of hostages being held by Hamas. The Council voted in favor 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining. Israel does have a vote on the Council.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his delegation’s visit to the White House to discuss Rafah after the vote. However, Netanyahu agreed to reschedule his delegation’s visit, a U.S. official told ABC News on Wednesday.
Netanyahu and Israel have continued to defend themselves against criticism of the invasion of Gaza and the conflicts over aid. In a case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023, South Africa alleged Israel has committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In its order in January 2024, the Court ordered Israel to take measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza but did not grant South Africa’s request to order Israel to suspend military operations in Gaza.
Earlier this month, South Africa filed an urgent request with the Court for additional provisional measures against Israel including a cease-fire, citing starvation in Gaza. Israel urged the Court to reject South Africa’s request for more emergency orders.
“South Africa has failed yet again in its cynical attempts to exploit the ICJ in order to undermine Israel’s inherent right and obligation to defend its citizens from the ongoing Hamas attacks and to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza in brutal captivity,” Lior Haiat, spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on Thursday.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(GAZA) — Hala Fayyad is proud of her handmade kite, decorated in the colors of the Palestinian flag. The four pieces of colored plastic — red, white, green and black — are held simply by white plastic sticks and a few strings.
“We fly kites instead of warplanes,” the 13-year-old told ABC News as she held her kite, moments before setting it free to ride the wind.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a religious non-governmental organization, hosted a kite festival at a school in Rafah this week. Hundreds of children of different ages participated in the day of games and activities, which culminated in the children flying their kites, carefully crafted in the past few days, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Of the more than 32,000 Palestinians killed in the military response from Israeli forces since October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, 45% have been children, they have said. Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack in Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage, according to Israeli officials, who say roughly 100 hostages may remain alive inside Gaza. Israel maintains that their goal is to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas, ensuring it no longer remains a threat to Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that children are the majority of the over 70,000 injured, too. UNICEF estimates that 1 million children in the Gaza Strip have been affected by the conflict.
UNICEF, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), Save the Children and other international organizations have warned of the disproportionate cost that children in Gaza are bearing in this conflict in terms of food insecurity and starvation, thirst, displacement and lack of basic healthcare.
“We saw the change in the behavior of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip as a result of displacement, living in tents and shelters,” Firas Ramlawi, the director of AFSC in Gaza, told ABC News. “So we wanted to alleviate this, through games and recreational activities.”
The kite activity, in particular, provides more than that, the organizers told ABC News. Gazans have a long history of kite-making and flying, connected with symbolic calls for freedom among Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, they have said.
Gazans even set a Guinness World Record in 2011 for most kites flown simultaneously, flying over 12,000 kites in one day. Ramlawi said the kites they made this time bore the names of children who were killed in the war.
On March 30, the AFSC says it will host a parallel kite festival in Washington, D.C., aimed at raising awareness about the price that Palestinian children are paying in this war and calling for a cease-fire in the war.
This will happen as a part of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival and will have a tribute to the late Palestinian professor and poet Refaat Alareer, who wrote the viral poem “If I Must Die” around the kite symbolism. “Refaat said, ‘let the kite be a symbol of hope,’ which is exactly what we need at this moment: hope to keep our people safe,” Jennifer Bing, the organizer of the parallel festival in D.C. and a friend of Alareer, told ABC News ahead of the event.
Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in early December, according to human rights monitor Euro-Med.
“He was 44, so we are having 44 white kites, and a multitude of Palestine-themed others,” Bing said, adding that they hope to send a pacifist message to the powerful decision-makers in the United States.
“We fly kites in order to rest our souls from the occupation planes, even for one day,” said Basil Ayman, a child who participated in the festival in Rafah. “Why do wars happen anyway? I hope the war stops.”
(KENYA) — A baby eastern black rhino has been born in Kenya, an event wildlife researchers are dubbing as a conservation success for the critically endangered species.
The calf, estimated to be 6 months old, was discovered in the Chyulu Hills in southern Kenya via a complex system of cameras and motion-sensor monitoring rangers in the region, Amy Baird, deputy director of Big Life Foundation USA, a conservation nonprofit, told ABC News.
The birth is considered rare because there are only about eight individuals in the small population of rhinos that live in the region. The rangers “didn’t quite believe their eyes” when they first saw the baby while checking the feed, Baird said, adding that most rhino calves are born in conservation areas.
The Chyulu Hills are a unique and remote ecosystem and is very difficult to monitor, making the discovery even more exciting, Baird said. The calf even “disappeared” for a couple of months, which made the conservationists nervous since rhino calves are so vulnerable at the newborn stage, she added.
“When they’re so small, they have to stay very close to their mothers, and there’s a lot of predators and other situations,” Baird said.
But the baby, which has not yet been named, was spotted again in February, putting the researchers a bit at ease due to its overall healthy condition and growth. The calf has been seen following its mom around and learning the ins and outs of its natural bush surroundings, according to the nonprofit.
The rhino calf will be given a name once rangers are certain that he or she is thriving ad going to become an established member of the population, Baird said. Researchers believe his parents are a female named Nontoyie and a male named Dickson, Baird said.
The rangers have also been unable to determine the calf’s gender so far, according to the nonprofit.
There are less than 1,000 eastern black rhinos still living in the wild, the researchers said. Rhino populations in Kenya have been threatened for decades due to poaching and trade of rhino tusks, which contain keratin.
The 1980s and early 1990s was the last time eastern black rhinos were thriving in the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya, Baird said. For a long time it was even believed that they were functionally extinct from the region, but when rangers patrolling the remote portion of the region saw footprints embedded in an area of lava, rock and sand, they realized some rhinos had survived, she said.
An increase in monitoring and anti-poaching efforts have likely contributed to the survival of the population as well, Baird said. There have been no poaching events of rhinos in the areas since 2015. Rangers are also making sure the rhinos have the resources they need to survive, including three water points to provide drinking water.
But the conservationists are not hopeful to the threat of poaching being eliminated completely.
“There’s always going to be a risk of poaching, just given how valuable rhino is on a black market,” Baird said.
Black rhinos are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
Long gestation periods of 13 to 15 months and then recovery period of another two years make it difficult for populations that were nearly wiped out to recover, Baird said.
“The program to protect them has really grown,” Baird said.
Pentagon Press Secretary U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder. Via Joseph Clark/Department of Defense
(WASHINGTON) — The United States hasn’t given Israel every weapon it has asked for as it continues military operations against Hamas in Gaza, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters on Thursday.
“Although we’ve been supporting them with capability, they’ve not received everything they’ve asked for,” Gen. CQ Brown said at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group,
That is partly “because they’ve asked for stuff that we’re — either don’t have the capacity [for] or not willing to provide, not right now, in particular,” said Brown, America’s top military officer.
He did not provide details about what weapons systems are not being given to Israel: “I don’t make those kinds of those decisions on what goes or doesn’t go.”
When asked if the U.S. has been withholding some aid to in order to get Israel to focus more on humanitarian aid or protecting civilians — something the White House has criticized Israeli forces for, though Israel maintains it takes such steps despite the high death toll in Gaza — Brown responded that the Israeli requests are seen through the same prism used for requests from other countries: how they could impact U.S. military readiness.
“It is a constant dialogue,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, wouldn’t elaborate on Brown’s comments during a separate briefing on Thursday, saying only that the U.S. remains committed to its “longstanding efforts to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge.”
A spokesperson for Brown subsequently issued a statement clarifying that his remarks about Israel were “solely in reference to a standard practice before providing military aid to any of our allies and partners.”
“We assess U.S. stockpiles and any possible impact on our own readiness to determine our ability to provide the requested aid,” said the spokesperson, Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey. “There is no change in U.S. policy. The United States continues to provide security assistance to our ally Israel as they defend themselves from Hamas.”
Earlier this week, Brown participated in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s meeting at the Pentagon with Austin’s Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant. But Brown on Thursday declined to provide full details of that discussion.
He said that the Israelis had provided “broad concepts” of their operational plan for an expected incursion into the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza next to Egypt.
“We got a little more detail on some of the broad concepts of the humanitarian [plan] and moving civilians than we got on the operational piece,” Brown said. “So I’m anxious to hear both of those and how that all comes together.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to go into Rafah to target Hamas fighters, despite U.S. concerns about the potential civilian casualties, some six months into a war that was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.
Approximately 1.4 million Palestinians are thought to be taking refuge in the city.
More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a trip to the Middle East last week, said a major military operation in Rafah would be a “mistake” that would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu has said going into Rafah is crucial for victory over Hamas and to prevent future terror attacks. Israeli forces have also said they plan to push civilians toward “humanitarian islands” in the center of Gaza in advance of an offensive in Rafah.
Brown said on Thursday that he would like to hear more details of the Israeli plans that “will help tell us a bit more of the feasibility of their plan and how they’re going to execute.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Almost a million people have been forced to flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of the year following an upsurge in violence in the east of the Central African nation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, has announced.
Humanitarian agencies are raising alarm at the “humanitarian and medical toll of the violence,” saying the situation has reached a “devastating level” as thousands of weapon-wounded civilians pour in to hospitals in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and surrounding areas.
In a dramatic resurgence of violence, the March 23 Movement armed rebel group has been expanding its territory and advancing towards Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, forcing thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire to flee as fighting intensifies between M23, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and various other armed groups.
Xavier Collard de Macquerh, head of programs at the International Committee of the Red Cross, told ABC News that the situation is dire and “we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.”
“People are experiencing loss in a repetitive manner, displaced several times in a row,” he said.
Collard de Macquerh says moving frontlines are triggering a wave of displacement, hospitals in Goma supported by the ICRC receiving more and more wounded civilians. “We are receiving more and more weapon-wounded and seeing a sharp increase in those wounded by shrapnel, explosives, which is a major concern.”
Collard de Macquerh told ABC News many civilians are also fleeing north to hard-to-access areas for humanitarian organizations due to security.
“People are in need of access to basics such as food, water, hygiene and access to health,” he told ABC News over the phone from Kinshasa, calling on armed actors to take all possible precautions to protect civilians caught in the crossfire.
According to the World Food Programme, around a quarter of the Central African nation’s population is facing “crisis levels of hunger or worse,” with many living in poor conditions with no access to food, education or health services. It’s a conflict-driven hunger crisis, WFP said in a statement last week.
Almost 300,000 people have arrived in Goma and its surroundings since “violent clashes” enveloped the town of Sake in Masisi territory in February, UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said at a press briefing in Geneva. The mass displacement has caused spontaneous and official displacement to “swell” as civilians desperately seek refuge from “indiscriminate bombing and other human rights abuses.”
The DRC now stands as the second-largest displacement crisis globally, second only to Sudan, the U.N. said, with over 7.1 million people internally displaced, including 800,000 in the last three months.
“Close to 10 million people are on the move,” said Saltmarsh. “Poverty and hunger affect a quarter of the population or 25.4 million people. The spread of cholera and other infectious diseases pose significant threats to the populations health.”
International Childrens charity Save the Children said the violence has also closed over 500 schools in the North Kivu region, creating chaos for children and “putting them at risk of being recruited by armed forces.” There have been at least two cases of teachers being kidnapped.
The U.S. has called on warring parties to turn to the Luanda Process.
“There is no military-only solution to the crisis in eastern DRC,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood said in a briefing to the U.N. Security Council. “The United States strongly supports the efforts led by regional actors to resume the Nairobi and Luanda processes, which offer the most viable paths toward resolving this 30-year conflict.”
“The United States calls on the leaders of Rwanda and the DRC to make the decision to pursue peace – for the sake of their people, the region, and the world,” the ambassador said.
(LONDON) — Artificial intelligence could eliminate up to nearly 8 million jobs in the United Kingdom, according to a new study, which cautions that women and early-career employees are most at risk of being put out of work.
Government policy, however, could allow the U.K. to avert job losses and harness AI for a breakneck economic surge, according to the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research, the think tank that authored the report.
“The world of knowledge work will be transformed by generative AI,” the report said, referring to a type of AI that can create content, such as text or images. “We need to start preparing for this now.”
Researchers analyzed 22,000 tasks carried out by workers across the U.K. economy, finding that 11% are currently exposed to the threat of displacement by AI, the study said. The jobs at greatest risk include entry-level, part-time and administrative roles — a set of positions disproportionately held by women, the study added.
The report describes a soon-to-begin phase of AI adoption during which some of these “low-hanging fruit” jobs will be replaced by the technology. The overall workforce impact over the period could be limited, the study said, but some roles will experience massive effects, such as the elimination of one-third of administrative jobs.
A second phase could bring much deeper integration of AI that will threaten up to 59% of tasks, the report said. If companies allow AI to access proprietary information and execute key tasks, the study said, the resulting disruption may slash a wider swathe of jobs, including a larger share of high-paying positions.
While offering up potential outcomes, the study acknowledged that a wide range of job-displacement scenarios remains possible, including the potential for job losses to be avoided entirely.
Experts who spoke to ABC News last year noted the absence of job losses during a surge of AI adoption over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While data on the scale of displacement remains limited, the experts said, anecdotes confirm that the technology eliminates some positions while creating others.
The increased sophistication and use of AI is expected to displace jobs over the coming years, the experts added. AI will enhance productivity and increase compensation for some jobs but it risks leaving out workers who fail to keep up, they said.
Artificial intelligence could displace roughly 15% of workers, or 400 million people, worldwide between 2016 and 2030, according to a McKinsey study released in 2018. In a scenario of wide AI adoption, the share of jobs displaced could rise to as much as 30%, the firm found.
The report out on Tuesday presented policy proposals that the authors believe could reduce the likelihood of job losses and heighten the possibility of an AI-induced economic boom.
A policy described by the report as “ringfencing,” for example, would mandate the continued use of human involvement for certain tasks, such as medical diagnoses. A combination of government incentives and public-private partnerships could help achieve the measure.
In its most optimistic potential scenario, the report outlines a future of AI adoption in which no jobs are lost and gross domestic product increases by 13%.
“There is no one predetermined path for how AI implementation will play out,” the report’s authors said.
(NEW YORK) — Global households are discarding an exorbitant amount of food every year, despite food insecurity remaining one of the top concerns in several regions around the world, according to a new report by the United Nationals Environment Programme.
Households across all continents wasted more than 1 billion meals per day in 2022, according to the UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report, released Wednesday. The annual cost of the food wasted is estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion and weigh in at 1.05 billion tonnes, according to the report.
Nearly one-fifth (19%) of the food available to consumers at the retail, food service and household level was wasted, according to the report.
Most of the world’s food waste comes from households, accounting for approximately 60% (631 million tonnes) of the total food waste in 2022. Food service and retail sectors accounted for around 28% and 12% respectively, the authors estimated.
An individual wastes, on average, approximately 79 kilograms — or about 174 pounds — of food annually, the report found.
The UNEP estimates that approximately 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to food waste and loss — almost five times the total emissions from the aviation sector, according to the report.
There is more food waste per capita in households that are located in typically hotter countries around the world, the report states. Factors such as extreme heat events and overall higher seasonal temperatures make it more challenging to store, process, transport, and sell food safely, often leading to a significant volume of food being wasted.
The report also highlights that there are food waste disparities between rural and urban populations. In middle-income countries, rural populations are generally wasting less compared to more urban areas.
The report recommends focusing efforts to strengthen circularity in cities and enhance food waste reduction programs.
Only four G20 countries — Australia, Japan, the U.K. the U.S. — and the European Union have food waste estimates suitable for tracking progress to 2030, according to the report.
An additional two G20 countries — Canada and Saudi Arabia — have suitable household estimates with Brazil’s estimate expected later this year. This is related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 to “end poverty, reduce inequality and build more peaceful, prosperous societies by 2030.”
Some countries, such as the U.K. and Japan, show that change on a national scale is possible. In Japan, total food waste has been reduced by 31% since 2008.
In the U.S., food is the single most common material sent to landfills, encompassing more than 24% of municipal solid waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Organic materials, including food waste, are responsible for 58% of fugitive methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills, the EPA estimates.
Fugitive methane emissions include all of the methane that is released into the atmosphere from various sources. Like carbon dioxide, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and is actually much more potent and effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide.
Methane is over 28 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the EPA. While methane only accounts for about 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, according to the International Energy Agency.
The concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere reached record levels in 2022 and there is no end in sight to the rising trend, according to a 2023 report by the World Meteorological Organization.
Reducing methane emissions is seen as especially important because it is one of the most effective short-term ways to limit global warming. Unlike carbon dioxide, methane gas has a short lifespan in the atmosphere, decomposing in about a decade, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
A growing number of governments are embracing public-private partnerships to reduce food waste and its impacts on climate and the environment, according to the report, which suggests that governments, cities, municipalities and food businesses of all sizes should work together to reduce food waste and encourage households to take action.
But very few countries have collected robust food waste data, according to the UNEP, which calls on them to use the Food Waste Index to measure food waste in a consistent manner, track progress and develop national baselines. This enhanced data would help better understand the scale of the problem, target hotspots, and investigate the efficacy of possible interventions, according to the report.
“Food waste is a global tragedy. Millions will go hungry today as food is wasted across the world,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. “Not only is this a major development issue, but the impacts of such unnecessary waste are causing substantial costs to the climate and nature. The good news is we know if countries prioritize this issue, they can significantly reverse food loss and waste, reduce climate impacts and economic losses, and accelerate progress on global goals.”
First published in 2021, this year’s Food Waste Index Report, co-authored with WRAP, a climate action nonprofit, provides the most accurate global estimate on food waste at retail and consumer levels. The report also provides guidance for countries on improving data collection and suggests best practices in moving from measuring to reducing food waste.
The 2024 report builds on recent and greater datasets and provides an update on the scale of food wasted worldwide.
LONDON — A court in the United Kingdom on Tuesday ordered a delay in the possible extradition of Julian Assange, allowing the WikiLeaks founder to continue his appeal fighting a transfer to the United States to face charges in connection with one of the largest thefts of classified government information in American history
Assange is accused of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, who was then an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, in a leak of hundreds of thousands of classified documents, including about 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables. WikiLeaks began publishing those documents in 2010.
The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed in 2019 an 18-count indictment accusing Assange of violating the Espionage Act by allegedly obtaining, receiving and disclosing classified information.
Those charges were unsealed following Assange’s arrest after he spent seven years living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He’s been incarcerated for the last five years in Belmarsh High Security Prison, a maximum-security facility in South London.
The British government approved the extradition after a hearing in London in June 2022.
Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, said in February she had concerns about Assange’s mental and physical wellbeing in prison. She said Assange “suffers from a depressive disorder.”
“Any extradition to the United States is very likely to exacerbate his medical underlying conditions — and there is a very real risk of suicide,” she said, according to U.N. News.
Stella Assange, a longtime partner who married Assange in 2022, added that the WikiLeaks founder had “no prospect” for a fair trial under the U.S. court system.
A U.K. Home Office spokesperson said a statement when the extradition was approved that the U.K. courts had not found that an extradition to the U.S. would “be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process.”
The spokesperson added, “Nor have they found that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights, including his right to a fair trial and to freedom of expression, and that whilst in the US he will be treated appropriately, including in relation to his health.”
Assange, an Australian citizen, had continued appealing the decision. A hearing in February in London’s High Court was expected to be his final chance within the U.K. courts to stop the overseas transfer, although he may choose to continue his appeal with the European Court of Human Rights.
The 18 charges brought against Assange carry a potential penalty of up to 175 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice. Officials said in announcing the charges that “sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.”
A superseding indictment issued in 2020 added allegations that Assange had conspired with the Anonymous hacking group.
WikiLeaks published in 2010 and 2011 several caches of classified U.S. documents and other leaked material. Those included a U.S. military video published in 2010 that the group described as “depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.”
The United Kingdom had as of 2022 denied at least 25 previous extradition requests made by the United States in separate cases, according to the Home Office.
“If Julian Assange is extradited, he will die,” Stella Assange said ahead of the February hearing, according to WikiLeaks.
ABC News’ Guy Davies, Mark Osborne, Jon Haworth, Lucien Bruggeman, Patrick Reevell and Joe Simonetti contributed to this story.
