Anastasia Moloney

The United Nations nature summit, COP16, kicks off in Colombia on Monday with the aim of halting the rapid destruction of nature and erosion of biodiversity worldwide.

Human life depends on biodiversity, including the widest mix of species on earth - from animals to plants to bacteria - along with broad genetic variety and a range of supporting ecosystems.

A year after Hurricane Otis ripped along Mexico's Pacific Coast, ghost resorts and dilapidation still dot the battered beaches.

Buildings stand empty. Breeze blocks strew the sands. And hotel bosses are busy clearing up last year's multi-billion-dollar mess even as they gear up for a new high season.

Haitian immigrants living in the Ohio city of Springfield have found themselves at the center of the heated debate around immigration, one of the key issues ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

Earlier this month during the U.S. presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, Trump repeated false claims that Haitian arrivals were eating household pets in Springfield.

IVF fertility treatment has become embroiled in the debate about abortion and reproductive rights, one of the key issues that divide the Republican and Democratic parties ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. Senate is set to vote on Tuesday on a bill to enshrine federal protections and expand insurance coverage for fertility treatments.

The first presidential election debate between Republican Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris saw the candidates trade blows on abortion, an issue that divides the parties as fiercely as it splits the nation.

The Nov. 5 election marks the first presidential election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, ending a federal right to the procedure.

With presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump locking horns in their first election debate of 2024, environmentalists will be watching for signals on how the United States’ will move forward on the transition to clean energy.

Democrat Kamala Harris supports the acceleration of renewable energy projects, while her Republican opponent Donald Trump, who is backed by oil company donations, has been an outspoken critic of such plans.

After coming out as non-binary, Argentine artist Federico Adorado searched fruitlessly for two years to secure a formal job that guaranteed a salary and access to healthcare.

But thanks to a trailblazing 2021 quota law that reserved 1% of public sector jobs for transgender, transsexual and non-binary people, the artist found an administrative job at the national film institute.

A year after Ecuador voted in a historic referendum to ban all oil drilling in a unique part of the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous leaders say the government has been slow to shut down wells in the oil-dependent South American nation.

On Aug. 20, 2023, more than 10 million people - almost 60% -voted to keep crude in the ground in the Yasuni national park in the Amazon.

A new U.S.-backed initiative to disrupt illicit financial flows from nature crimes such as illegal logging and mining in the Amazon rainforest has been welcomed by security experts, but the effort could be hampered by lawlessness and state weakness.

Launched by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July, the plan is to boost cooperation in South America to tackle an illicit industry worth billions of dollars that is leaving a trail of destruction in the Amazon rainforest.

Food delivery driver John Jay Chan has had no protections from the record-breaking heatwaves that have hit the Philippines in recent months, but he must continue to work nine-hour days to provide for his family.

"We understand that the nature of our work means we're exposed to extreme heat," said Chan, a 30-year-old father of two, who has been a motorbike gig worker for the past six years.