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UN report says 282 million people faced acute hunger in 2023, with the worst famine in Gaza – ABC News

UNITED NATIONS — Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza as the territory with the largest number of people facing famine, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released Wednesday.

The U.N. report said 24 million more people faced an acute lack of food than in 2022, due to the sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and Sudan. The number of nations with food crises that are monitored has also been expanded.

Máximo Torero, chief economist for the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said 705,000 people in five countries are at Phase 5, the highest level, on a scale of hunger determined by international experts — the highest number since the global report began in 2016 and quadruple the number that year.

Over 80% of those facing imminent famine — 577,000 people — were in Gaza, he said. South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali each host many thousands also facing catastrophic hunger.

According to the report’s future outlook, around 1.1 million people in Gaza, where the Israel-Hamas war is now in its seventh month, and 79,000 in South Sudan are projected to be in Phase 5 and facing famine by July.

It said conflict will also continue to drive food insecurity in Haiti, where gangs control large portions of the capital.

Additionally, while the El Nino phenomenon peaked in early 2024, “its full impact on food security – including flooding and poor rain in parts of east Africa and drought in southern Africa, especially Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – are like to manifest throughout the year.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report “a roll call of human failings,” and that “in a world of plenty, children are starving to death.”

“The conflicts erupting over the past 12 months compound a dire global situation,” he wrote in the report’s foreword.

Guterres highlighted the conflict in the Gaza Strip, as the enclave holds the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger. There is also the year-old conflict in Sudan, which has created the world’s largest internal displacement crisis “with atrocious impacts on hunger and nutrition,” he added.

According to the report, over 36 million people in 39 countries and territories are facing an acute hunger emergency, a step below the famine level in Phase 4, with more than a third in Sudan and Afghanistan. It’s an increase of a million people from 2022, the report said.

Arif Husain, the U.N. World Food Program’s chief economist, said every year since 2016 the numbers of people acutely food insecure have gone up, and they are now more than double the numbers before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the report looks at 59 countries, he said the target is to get data from 73 countries where there are people who are acutely food insecure.

Secretary-General Guterres called for an urgent response to the report’s findings that addresses the underlying causes of acute hunger and malnutrition while transforming the systems that supply food. Funding is also not keeping pace with the needs, he stressed.

“We must have the funding, and we also must have the access,” WFP’s Husain said, stressing that both “go hand-in-hand” and are essential to tackle acute food insecurity.

The report is the flagship publication of the Food Security Information Network and is based on a collaboration of 16 partners including U.N. agencies, regional and multinational bodies, the European Union, the U.S. Agency for International Development, technical organizations and others.

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A milestone reached in mainline Protestant churches’ decades-old disputes over LGBTQ inclusion – The Associated Press

The fight to allow same-sex marriage and gay clergy has defined much of the last half-century for major mainline Protestant denominations in the U.S., mirroring in many ways the broader fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion in civic life.

Within these theologically moderate-to-progressive Protestant groups, the decades of wrestling over whether to reaffirm or overturn longstanding anti-LGBTQ+ church policies sowed deep divisions throughout the denominations. It’s caused hurt feelings, broken relationships, disciplinary church trials and schisms.

The United Methodist Church, which stripped out its bans and related social teachings over the past two weeks, is the last of the major mainline church bodies to go through this process.

This timeline highlights key milestones and flashpoints within the UMC, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ, as well as in civic life.

1960s

June 28, 1969 Police raid the Stonewall Inn, an underground gay bar in New York City. It sparked a rebellion and fueled the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

1970s

April 1972 The United Methodist Church has first public debate on homosexuality at a General Conference. The conference approves non-binding Social Principles, declaring the “practice of homosexuality … incompatible with Christian teaching.” It also says “persons of homosexual orientation are persons of sacred worth.”

June 25, 1972 William R. Johnson becomes the first openly gay person to be ordained a minister in the United Church of Christ.

September 1979 Episcopal Church General Convention approves resolution saying it is “not appropriate for this church to ordain a practicing homosexual or any person who is engaged in heterosexual relations outside of marriage.” It also says homosexual people have an equal claim on the church’s love and acceptance.

1980s

May 1984 United Methodist General Conference approves rule declaring that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be accepted as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve.”

1990s

Feb. 28, 1994 The federal “ don’t ask, don’t tell ” policy goes into effect, allowing gay and lesbian people to serve in the U.S. military only if they don’t openly acknowledge their sexual orientation. A prior policy barred them altogether.

May 1996 Episcopal Bishop Walter C. Righter goes on trial in the church for heresy for ordaining an openly gay man as a deacon. He is later acquitted.

July 5, 1996 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly bans noncelibate gay clergy, requiring church officers to live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

Sept. 21, 1996 The federal Defense of Marriage Act is signed into law, limiting federal recognition of marriage to heterosexual couples.

2000s

June 7, 2003 Gene Robinson is elected the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Nov. 18, 2003 Massachusetts becomes the first to legalize same-sex marriage statewide.

July 4, 2005 United Church of Christ General Synod affirms marriage rights for all couples regardless of gender.

June 22, 2009 The Anglican Church in North America forms. It is led by a breakaway group of mostly former Episcopalians who disagreed with the Episcopal Church’s decision to allow an openly gay person to be a bishop, and other theological issues.

August 21, 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Churchwide Assembly allows partnered gay and lesbian people to be pastors.

2010s

August 27, 2010 The Rev. Jane Spahr is found guilty in a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) trial on misconduct charges for presiding over same-gender marriage ceremonies.

August 27, 2010

North American Lutheran Church, a conservative denomination formed in response to liberal trends in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is constituted.

May 10, 2011 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ratifies amendment that opens the door to LGBTQ clergy, removing a requirement that clergy “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

Sept. 20, 2011 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law repealed.

January 2012 The Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians forms. Conservative congregations joined this and older breakaway denominations in response to liberal trends in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

May 31, 2013 R. Guy Erwin becomes the first openly gay bishop elected in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

November 2013

The Rev. Frank Schaefer is found guilty in a United Methodist Church trial for performing his son’s same-sex wedding in 2007.

March 17, 2015 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ratifies amendment to its constitution calling marriage a “unique commitment between two people,” no longer limited to a couple consisting of one man and one woman.

June 26, 2015 United States Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.

July 1, 2015 The Episcopal Church permits any couple the rite of matrimony.

July 16, 2016 Karen Oliveto becomes the United Methodist Church’s first openly lesbian bishop.

2020s

May 8, 2021 Megan Rohrer becomes the first openly transgender bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

May 1, 2022 Global Methodist Church launches. This is a breakaway group that left the United Methodist Church over its lack of enforcement of its bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriage.

April 23 to May 3, 2024 United Methodists dismantle their denomination’s anti-LGBTQ policies and teachings, including lifting bans on same-sex marriage and gay clergy.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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YouTube Is Testing A Premium Feature That Helps You Skip To A Video’s Good Part – PCMag

YouTube is testing a new feature that allows users to “Jump Ahead” in videos they’re watching to the spot that most viewers tend to skip ahead to, AKA the good part.

YouTube originally started test-driving the feature back in March with a small subset of users, but is now making it more widely available for YouTube Premium subscribers, 9to5Google reports.

The way the feature works is pretty simple: Whenever you double tap to skip ahead in a video you’ll see a button that “jump[s] you to where most viewers typically skip ahead to.” It appears only briefly, in case you really just wanted to jump ahead a few seconds. However, if you’re watching a video with a viral bit, it can be a fast and easy way to get right to the good stuff.

The tool uses watch data along with AI to identify exactly where that sweet spot is.

To get the feature you’ll need to be a YouTube Premium subscriber and also opt into the site’s experimental features. The feature is currently available only for the YouTube Android app in the US and only on English videos. The feature also doesn’t currently work for every video, only those with enough data available to determine exactly where that sweet spot is.

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YouTube has an end date of June 1 currently listed for the feature, suggesting that the test drive will only last for a few weeks before it will presumably solicit feedback from users and determine whether to roll it out more widely. If you want to see if it’s available for you, you can access the feature via Settings > Try experimental new features.

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Study uncovers mechanism linking diet, diabetes, and cancer risk – WION

The connection between a poor diet or poorly controlled metabolic conditions such as diabetes and higher cancer risk is partly elucidated by a previously unidentified mechanism that deactivates genes inhibiting tumor formation.

Using mouse models, human tissue, and in vitro-produced human breast organoids, researchers from Singapore and the UK discovered that disruptions in glucose metabolism may promote the growth of cancer by momentarily blocking the BRCA2 gene, which guards against tumors.

Cancer pharmacologist Li Ren Kong of the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore), who is the study’s primary author, states that “these findings raise awareness of the impact of diet and weight control in the management of cancer risks.”

“We started the study aiming to understand what factors elevate risk in families susceptible to cancer, but ended up discovering a deeper mechanism linking an essential energy consumption pathway to cancer development,” he added.

The study also calls into question a long-standing idea concerning cancer-protective genes. Recent research has discovered that a mutation in one of a cell’s two BRCA2 genes is associated with a variety of cancers. Interestingly, mice and human cells with this mutation do not exhibit the typical symptoms of genetic instability observed in cells with both copies of the gene altered.

In mice, having only one copy of BRCA2 impacted does not appear to create significant difficulties with organ development or DNA repair in most tissues. However, cells with this mutation tend to be more prone to stress, such as exposure to environmental pollutants like formaldehyde or acetaldehyde, which can lower BRCA2 protein levels and cause functional issues.

How do disruptions in glucose metabolism affect BRCA2 function?

The researchers initially looked at persons who had inherited one defective copy of BRCA2. They discovered that these people’s cells were more susceptible to methylglyoxal (MGO), which is created when cells break down glucose for energy during glycolysis.

The researchers observed that MGO can temporarily block the BRCA2 protein’s tumor-suppressing capabilities, causing mutations associated with cancer development.

Overall, their findings imply that alterations in glucose metabolism can affect BRCA2 function via MGO, leading to cancer genesis and progression. This new knowledge may help to develop cancer prevention or early detection measures.