UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries and are taking an increasing toll on health, economies and the environment, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization says.
“About 2 billion tons of dust are emitted yearly, equivalent to 300 Great Pyramids of Giza” in Egypt, the organization's U.N. representative, Laura Paterson, told the General Assembly.
More than 80% of the world’s dust comes from the deserts in North Africa and the Middle East, she said, but it has a global impact because the particles can travel hundreds and even thousands of kilometers (miles) across continents and oceans.
The General Assembly was marking the International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms on Saturday and its designation of 2025 to 2034 as the U.N. decade on combating sand and dust storms.
Assembly President Philemon Yang said the storms “are fast becoming one of the most overlooked yet far-reaching global challenges of our time.”
“They are driven by climate change, land degradation and unsustainable practices,” he said.
Yang, in a speech Thursday that was read by an assembly vice president, said airborne particles from sand and dust storms contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year. He said they trigger respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and reduce crop yields by up to 25%, causing hunger and migration.
Undersecretary-General Rola Dashti, head of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, told the assembly the storms’ economic costs are "staggering.”
In the Middle East and North Africa, the annual cost of dealing with dust and sand storms is $150 billion, roughly 2.5% of GDP, she said.
“This spring alone, the Arab region experienced acute disruption,” Dashti said, citing severe storms in Iraq that overwhelmed hospitals with respiratory cases and storms in Kuwait and Iran that forced schools and offices to close.
Dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa has reached as far as the Caribbean and Florida, she said,
Dashti, who also co-chairs the U.N. Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms, said over 20 U.N. and international agencies are working to unite efforts on early warning systems for storms and to deal with other issues, including health and financing.
She urged all countries to put sand and dust storms into global and national agendas.
“From land restoration and sustainable agriculture to integrated early warning systems, we have the tools to act," Dashti said. "What we need now is collective determination and financing to bring these solutions to scale.”
FILE - The United Nations flag flies on a stormy day at the U.N. during the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Rock formations stand in the Sahara desert outside the city center of Djanet, a southeastern Algerian oasis town in the Sahara desert, on July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Audrey Thibert)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is edging lower on Monday at the start of a week full of economic reports that could drive where interest rates, and thus stock prices, go.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% in afternoon trading, coming off its first losing week in the last three. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 81 points, or 0.2%, as of 2:02 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Technology stocks, including companies in the artificial-intelligence industry, were among the heaviest weights on the market following their scary swings last week.
Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the face of the AI boom, rose 1.5%. It was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500 and cushioning some of the impact from losses elsewhere on Monday after dropping 4.1% last week.
Oracle sank another 1.5% following its 12.7% tumble last week, which was its worst in more than seven years. Broadcom fell 4.7%.
AI stocks have been shaky on worries that all the billions of dollars flowing into chips and data centers may not produce a big-enough payoff of profits and productivity to make it worth it. The doubts are causing cracks for the industry, whose earlier surges was the main driver for the U.S. market’s rally to records.
Besides AI, the main focus on Wall Street this week will be what several big updates on the U.S. economy’s health say.
On Tuesday will come the jobs report for November, and economists expect it to show employers added 40,000 more jobs than they cut during the month. Thursday will bring an update on the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling, and economists expect it to show inflation was at 3.1% last month, still higher than households and policymakers would like.
Such data is under the microscope because the Federal Reserve is trying to figure out if a slowing job market or high inflation is the bigger problem for the economy. The Fed is in a potentially tough spot because fixing one of those problems by moving interest rates would likely worsen the other in the short term.
The hope on Wall Street is that the job market weakens, but only by a little: enough to get the Fed to lower interest rates but not so much that a recession swamps the economy. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can give the economy and prices for investments a boost, even if they also may worsen inflation.
“With the Fed still appearing to be more focused on labor-market weakness than inflation, we’re likely facing a ‘bad news is good’ scenario for the jobs report,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.
“As long as the numbers don’t suggest employment is falling off a cliff,” that would mean the market would likely welcome soft numbers, he said.
The spotlight will be brightest on the unemployment rate, not the overall job growth numbers, because the latter is feeling downward pressure from a drop-off in immigrant workers. Economists expect Tuesday’s report to show the unemployment rate at 4.4%, which would keep it near its highest and worst level since 2021.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market ahead of the updates. A report earlier on Monday morning also said that a measure of manufacturing strength in New York state unexpectedly weakened, when economists expected to see continued growth.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.19% late Friday.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, shares of iRobot tumbled 71.4% after the maker of Roomba vacuums said holders of its stock will likely face a total loss after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend. The company has reached an agreement with its primary contract manufacturer, Picea, to buy it through a process supervised by a U.S. bankruptcy court.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following weaker finishes in Asia.
Indexes fell 1.3% in Hong Kong and 0.6% in Shanghai after the Chinese government reported a drop in investment in factory equipment, infrastructure and other fixed assets. It’s the latest signal that demand in the world’s second-largest economy remains weak.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 1.3% after a quarterly survey of big manufacturers by the central bank showed a slight improvement in sentiment. That could encourage the Bank of Japan to go ahead with a hike to interest rates.
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Specialists Alex Weitzman, left, and Meric Greenbaum work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A currency trader watches monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader works near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
