West Afghanistan earthquake: Hundreds dead in powerful quake — bbc — 8 October 2023 (LINK)

Do masks work against covid? Consistently wearing a mask in public reduces the risk between 56% and 83% depending on the quality of the mask worn. Any mask is better than no mask, but cloth masks have the lowest efficacy.Masks work best when everyone wears one — bloomberg — 8 October 2023 (LINK)

The battle for Taiwan — theglobalist — 8 October 2023 (LINK)

Want to cut heart disease risk? Here's how many flights of stairs to climb daily: 5 — sciencealert — 8 October 2023 (LINK)

heathercoxrichardson: Hamas vs Israel — substack — 7 October 2023 (LINK)

Malaria could be eliminated by 2040: new vaccine R21/Matrix approved by WHO offers hope — sciencealert — 7 October 2023 (LINK)

— We're seeing about 75 percent efficacy by counting the reduction in numbers of malaria episodes over a year. The best vaccine prior to this was about 50 percent over a year, and lower than that over three years.

This is a material improvement, but that's not the main improvement. The big difference is how you can manufacture it at a scale that is really needed to protect most of the children who need a malaria vaccine in Africa.

Iran activist Narges Mohammadi, currently serving a 31-year jail term in Iran and subjected to 154 lashes, awarded Nobel Peace Prize — BBC — 6 October 2023 (LINK)

Sweeping UN study finds that 9 out of 10 people worldwide are biased against women — upworthy — 6 October 2023 (LINK)

— The data, which was collected from 75 countries covering 81% of the world's population, found that 91% of men and 86% of women show at least one clear bias against women in the areas of politics, economics, education, and physical integrity.

Al Gore doesn’t say I Told You So — newyorker — 6 October 2023 (LINK)

Death toll 52 in Russian attack on Ukrainian village of Hroza — ground.news — 5 October 2023 (LINK)

The EU wants to ban greenwashing — for good — adventure.com — 5 October 2023 (LINK)

ESG ratings: whose interests do they serve? Regulators and politicians are focusing on the accuracy, transparency and potential for conflicts of interest with sustainability scores — ft — 3 October 2023 (LINK)

— ESG ratings look and sound like the familiar credit ratings produced by S&P, Fitch or Moody's. In reality, there are two crucial differences: analysts are not yet subject to regulatory scrutiny on conflicts of interest, and they work in part on unaudited environmental, social and governance data, rather than in audited financial statements. Only 5% of funds align with the 1.5C Paris goals on climate.

GLOBAL GENEVA INSIGHTS piece: Interested in ESG? Look at the facts, not opinions (LINK)

Trump seeks to dismiss election interference charges, saying he had presidential immunity — BBC — 5 October 2023 (LINK)

Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse wins Nobel literature prize — ground.news — 5 October 2023 (LINK)

Building Bridges Action Days 2023 — see_link — 4 October 2023 (LINK)

— This year over 2800 people were in Geneva to collectively build bridges at over 70 events led by 130 organisations.

• SSF/AMAS Event: "Introducing the Swiss Stewardship Code" (4 October)
• Workshop: Idea Challenge - Solutions for Thriving Impact Investing Ecosystems (4 October)
• High Level Plenary: "How Much Does your Business Depend on Nature? Getting Ready for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures" (3 October)
• "The Role of Insurance in Promoting Sustainability"

Countries pledge to raise $12 billion to fund coral reef protection — Reuters — 3 October 2023 (LINK)

Armenia ratifies ICC Rome Statute in show of defiance against Russia — euronews — 3 October 2023 (LINK)

Billions in frozen funds for Hungary on table as EU seeks Ukraine support — Reuters — 3 October 2023 (LINK)

UN approves international force to aid Haiti amid gang violence — aljazeera — 2 October 2023 (LINK)

Tunisia's Saied rejects EU financial aid, casting doubt on immigration deal — france24 — 2 October 2023 (LINK)

UN migration chief voices concern over Mediterranean deaths, pledges new solutions: says private sector 'desperate' to take migrants despite negative narrative — ground.news: 22 media reports — 2 October 2023 (LINK)

Scientists whose work enabled mRNA Covid vaccine win Nobel prize for medicine — ground.news: 303 media reports — 2 October 2023 (Resumes 13 October 2023

US government issues first-ever space debris penalty to Dish Network — the guardian — 2 October 2023 (LINK)