Women worldwide spend more than three times as many hours on unpaid household work and child care, leaving a gap between reality and the United Nations’ target for reaching gender equality by 2030, the Gates Foundation reports. In 2015, leaders from 195 countries pledged to achieve gender equality by 2030, but at the current pace of progress, most countries won’t reach gender equality until at least 2108.

One reason is that global shocks like COVID-19 significantly disproportionately affect women. In 2022, men have an estimated 72% labor force participation rate, compared to women’s 47%. Men have also recovered from unemployment during the pandemic at a rate that’s two times higher than women. The availability of child care is directly related to women’s participation in the workforce — in low- and middle-income countries, unpaid caregiving duties took up more than half of a woman’s working hours. 

But even before the pandemic, the World Bank reported that the difference between women and men’s earnings over a lifetime is $172.3 trillion. While no country has currently reached gender parity, Denmark ranks number one in the U.N.’s Gender Equality Index. The U.S. ranks 38th, well behind many countries in Europe, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K., Singapore, and Israel, despite having one of the highest national per capita incomes in the world.

Italy elected its most right-wing government since World War II in Sunday’s election, according to the latest vote tallies. Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party won the majority (26%) of the vote, setting Meloni on course to be the country’s first female prime minister. 

A right-wing coalition between the Brothers of Italy, Matteo Salvini’s far-right Northern League, and Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia won the majority of the seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with around 44% of the vote. Italy’s center-left alliance received 26% of the vote, though the center and center-left parties individually won more votes than the right. In the previous 2018 election, the Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, won only 4% of the vote.

The 2022 election was triggered by a vote of no confidence in outgoing prime minister Mario Draghi, who resigned in July despite winning the confidence vote. Italy’s national unity government lasted 18 months before falling apart under the pressure of parliamentary infighting, debt, a cost of living crisis, and the Ukraine conflict.

Meloni has pledged her support for Ukraine and NATO. But the Northern League and Forza Italia’s reportedly close ties to Russia, and admiration for Russian President Vladmir Putin, have caused concern among Western allies about a right-wing shift in Europe.

The standard of living dropped for people around the world in 2021, wiping out any gains since 2016, the United Nations reports in its recent Human Development Index. The report comes just as world leaders met at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the most pressing global issues. 

The U.N. reports that the pandemic, the Ukraine conflict and the effects of climate change are driving reversals in human development in more than 80% of the countries surveyed. This is the second year in a row that the global standard of living has dropped — the first time the index has dropped two years in a row since it started in 1990. 

The index measures factors like life expectancy, education and income. COVID-19 caused the biggest fall in life expectancy worldwide since World War II. The pandemic particularly accelerated the decline of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Living standards also dropped significantly in South Asia and fell even further in sub-Saharan Africa. The ongoing cost-of-living crisis spurred by inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means that conditions are unlikely to improve in the near future.

Coal prices are skyrocketing around the world as countries brace themselves for winter amid an energy crisis. Demand for coal surged this year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions caused natural gas and oil shortages worldwide.

The competition has driven coal prices to record highs: Europe’s benchmark coal futures rose to $320 a ton, about 90% higher than last year. Asian benchmark Australian Newcastle coal hit a record $431 a ton, and U.S. coal prices rose to $193 a ton. That’s roughly three times higher than the benchmarks in the second quarter of 2021. The EU’s ban on Russian coal went into effect last month, increasing the region’s reliance on imports from Indonesia and Australia.

China and India are the world’s largest coal consumers, accounting for 70% of global coal demand. And China has increased its reliance on coal this year as drought has reduced its hydroelectric power production. But Europe is one of the main drivers behind the current push for coal. High demand for coal power is expected to continue throughout the year, despite nearly 200 countries pledging to reduce their coal consumption at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.