Our daily stroll around the world

🏥 The WHO held its first-ever summit on traditional medicine last week. During the two-day event, WHO officials said traditional medicine – which refers to the medical knowledge, skills, and practices indigenous to different cultures – exists as a complement to so-called modern medicine, and urged countries to examine how best to incorporate both practices into their health systems. An estimated 80% of the world’s population uses traditional medicine, which includes treatments like acupuncture, homeopathy, meditation, and yoga.

🌍📈 Major events around the world are contributing to higher food prices. Global rice prices rose to their highest level in almost 12 years this week, largely due to India’s rice export ban and adverse weather conditions harming crop production, per the UN’s food agency. Aside from rice, prices for many other agricultural products have spiked since early July, which Bloomberg attributes to heavy rains in Europe and China, unusually dry weather in Thailand, and Russia’s decision to end its grain deal with Ukraine.

🇪🇨 Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon rainforest. The results mean Ecuador’s state oil company will have to cease operating in Yasuni National Park, a 2.5-million-acre section of rainforest that’s home to a wide variety of plant and animal species, as well as two Indigenous tribes. The referendum took place alongside Ecuador’s presidential election – held 11 days after candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated – which appears headed to an upcoming runoff election between leftist candidate Luisa González and right-wing contender Daniel Noboa.