The H5N1 avian influenza virus has so far shown no signs of adapting to allow human-to-human transmission, the UN health agency said on Wednesday, urging continued surveillance.

“Unprecedented and devastating” flooding in East Africa has triggered widespread displacement with hundreds of thousands forced from their homes in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania, UN humanitarians warned on Wednesday. 

Israeli military manoeuvres and shelling continued in and around eastern Rafah in southern Gaza on Wednesday morning as UN humanitarians stressed that “no fuel or aid” is getting into the enclave.

2023 saw another climate record tumble, with Latin America and the Caribbean registering their hottest ever recorded temperatures, according to the UN’s weather monitoring agency.

“You know you are saying something right,” Stevie Wonder told reporters at UN Headquarters on his birthday in 1985. “I really don’t mind being banned. The sad thing is, I’d like to see South Africa, and I’d like to unite with my brothers and sisters in South Africa, but as long as this condition exists in the world, we cannot continue to support it as a country, as a people. We did away with it here. We can damn sure do away with it there.”