Health and Human Rights News
News to 28 August 2026
Meta settles in US child harm lawsuit
Meta agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit this week. Dozens of US states had accused the tech giant of addicting and harming children with dangerous products. The agreement requires the social media company to pay up to $18bn. Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use nationwide in the United States.
Child casualties reach a high in Ukraine
At least 16 people were killed and more than 140 injured, including 23 children, in an attack by the Russian Armed Forces on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine this week, reported UNICEF. Child casualties are at record levels with 17 children killed and 166 injured in July, according to UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. Since February 2022, the UN has verified 3,946 children killed or injured.
Gaza: Children still at risk despite drop in acute hunger
UNICEF data reported by UN News showed improvement in acute malnutrition in children in Gaza but continuing severe consequences from prolonged hunger: around one in eight children was chronically malnourished/stunted. For many the damage may be permanent as stunting can affect a child’s brain development, learning ability and future health for the rest of their lives, commented UNICEF.
Israeli strikes continue in Gaza
Israeli strikes have killed at least seven Palestinians across Gaza this week, according to local medical sources reported by Al Jazeera. Three Palestinians were killed and others injured in a strike near Kamal Adwan Hospital. An Israeli military strike also destroyed a warehouse storing nutrition supplies intended for children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers in Gaza.
Global food supply has become “collateral damage” in conflicts
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week that conflict-related disruption to maritime routes was worsening hunger crises and threatening access to food and essential goods. He stressed that “maritime chokepoints must never become instruments of coercion” and that the delivery of food, energy and essential goods must never be impeded. He added, “The unimpeded exercise of navigational rights and freedoms …is a legal obligation and a humanitarian imperative.”
Africa plans for millions more health workers
Facing a projected shortage of more than six million health professionals by 2035, African countries are stepping up efforts to strengthen their workforce, with a new decade-long plan announced this week during a meeting of health ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ministers approved a 10-year programme to train, employ and retain three million additional health workers to bolster health systems across the continent which currently has less than half the health workers it needs.
WHO cautiously welcomes Ebola vaccines for DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine from the UN’s international vaccine coordination group (ICG) to protect frontline communities against the Ebola virus disease. The Ervebo vaccine was initially developed to target the Zaire ebola virus, which caused the 2014-2016 West African epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the allocation but stressed that it remains unknown whether the Ervebo vaccine will work against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.
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