UN News
- UN teams are racing to protect families in Gaza from the coming rainy season, but restricted access to land and shortages of critical supplies are hampering the effort, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has voiced concern over Malaysia’s decision to return 1,476 people to Myanmar amid an ongoing civil war and a dire human rights and humanitarian situation.
- Four in five households in Lebanon struggle to afford basic necessities today, with children increasingly going without food, missing school and being pushed into work as conflict compounds years of economic crisis. "I wanted to buy clothes for my children, but I could not. I also wanted to enrol them in school, but I could not afford that either," said one father of four, cited on Wednesday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
- Homicide rates are falling across much of the world, but organised crime is on the rise in many regions as criminal networks diversify into trafficking, migrant smuggling, and the exploitation of natural resources, a new UN report launched on Wednesday revealed.
- Children have been killed and injured in fresh fighting in Baidoa, in Somalia’s South West State, where families were already facing severe hunger and other overlapping crises.
- What if the world tackled inequality with the same kind of scientific firepower it has brought to the climate crisis?
- Artificial Intelligence or AI – and the technology behind it – is moving fast. The question being asked across the world is who gets a seat at the table deciding how it's used and who gets to benefit.
- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
- Amid rising tensions, extreme weather impacts and strikes on nuclear infrastructure in war-torn Iran and Ukraine, UN Member States returned to the core issue of disarmament on Tuesday, closing out the General Assembly’s High-Level Week with calls for greater safeguards.
- Food waste is helping to fuel global warming, one half-eaten sandwich at a time.
- Haji Mohammad Shafi spent 44 years in Pakistan before he was forced to leave. He sold everything he owned and returned to Afghanistan with his five children, arriving with almost nothing.
- The UN chief on Tuesday strongly condemned an airstrike that reportedly killed at least 50 people at a market in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and called for those responsible to be held to account.
- Heavy fighting in Yemen is fuelling concerns of an uptick in cholera, measles and other preventable diseases, as overcrowding at displacement sites threatens to overwhelm the limited healthcare services still open.
- The Security Council met in New York on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Tuesday, where clashes between Government forces and M23 rebels continue in the east, despite a series of peace agreements. Ambassadors focused on ceasefire monitoring, rising tensions between the DRC and Rwanda and the country’s worst Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed more than 3,900 people.
- The Security Council met Monday morning with prospects for peace in the Middle East under strain on two fronts. In the West Bank, settler violence and settlement expansion are raising fears for a two-State solution. In Gaza, a year-old peace plan has stalled while civilian suffering continues. The meeting comes as the plan’s remaining phases, including Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal, remain unimplemented, and as the illegality of settlements under international law remains a key point of contention.
- World leaders met in the General Assembly Monday to assess how far the world has come in combating racism and how far it still has to go. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the most comprehensive framework of its kind, seeks to acknowledge historical injustices, dismantle inequalities and build societies grounded in dignity, equality and justice for all.
- The continuing conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global energy markets and pushing up fuel prices, with knock-on effects far beyond the region.
- Support for water and sanitation at the biggest camp in the world for Syrian refugees is under threat from a lack of funding – combined with the impact of climate change – the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Monday.
- Sudan’s Foreign Minister addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday in place of Chairperson of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, whose visa application was rejected by Washington.
- South Sudan remains committed to holding general elections in December to conclude its transition period, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Cecilia Adout Majok Adeng, told the General Assembly on Monday, calling for all sanctions, including the arms embargo to be lifted.
- Four in five households in Lebanon struggle to afford basic necessities today, with children increasingly going without food, missing school and being pushed into work as conflict compounds years of economic crisis. "I wanted to buy clothes for my children, but I could not. I also wanted to enrol them in school, but I could not afford that either," said one father of four, cited on Wednesday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
- UN teams are racing to protect families in Gaza from the coming rainy season, but restricted access to land and shortages of critical supplies are hampering the effort, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
- Heavy fighting in Yemen is fuelling concerns of an uptick in cholera, measles and other preventable diseases, as overcrowding at displacement sites threatens to overwhelm the limited healthcare services still open.
- The Security Council met Monday morning with prospects for peace in the Middle East under strain on two fronts. In the West Bank, settler violence and settlement expansion are raising fears for a two-State solution. In Gaza, a year-old peace plan has stalled while civilian suffering continues. The meeting comes as the plan’s remaining phases, including Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal, remain unimplemented, and as the illegality of settlements under international law remains a key point of contention.
- Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister warned on Saturday that escalating threats across the Middle East risked international peace, energy security and global trade, calling for stronger international cooperation to protect Gulf States and vital shipping routes.
- Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
- Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, has stressed that decisions over war and peace, and control of weapons, must rest solely with the State and its constitutional institutions.
- Israeli policies now threaten “the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland”, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday, urging the world not to allow “another Nakba”.
- The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) continues to operate under “extraordinary pressure”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.
- President Masoud Pezeshkian opened his General Assembly address with a direct rebuttal to US President Donald Trump, who a day earlier had branded Iran the “number one sponsor of terror.”
- As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
- The UN chief warned on Tuesday that the two-State solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict is at risk of collapse amid illegal Israeli settlement expansion and annexation.
- The UN has condemned continued cross‑border attacks by Houthi forces against Saudi Arabia, including an attempted strike on the capital Riyadh, as fighting inside Yemen drives one of the country’s fastest displacement surges in years.
- People displaced by the renewed fighting in Yemen have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
- While Syria is making progress in its political transition, the Security Council is meeting to hear briefings and discuss the situation on the ground, including recent reports of deadly armed clashes with an ISIS-affiliate terrorist group in the south and protests over rising fuel prices.
- Renewed fighting in Yemen is deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis in a country where more than 12 million children depend on aid, after more than a decade of conflict.
- Search and rescue operations continued in Gaza City on Wednesday following the collapse of a bombed-out building that killed at least 20 people, according to reports.
- Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble of Gaza, three years after Israeli bombardment flattened entire neighbourhoods – most of them women and children.
- The escalating conflict in Yemen is choking off aid shipments and driving fresh displacement, including to nearby Djibouti, with UN agencies reporting on Tuesday that nearly 100,000 people have been displaced since fighting intensified earlier this month.
- Amid rising violence in Yemen, the Security Council met in emergency session on Tuesday to discuss the situation surrounding the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait shipping route as UN agencies warn of rising displacement, including thousands of Yemenis fleeing to Djibouti. UN News app users can follow here.
- Five years of war. Another winter closing in. Today, the Security Council once again debates a path to peace – though any resolution still runs up against the veto of Russia, one of its own permanent members, whose objections have repeatedly stalled any consensus. As world leaders take the floor, the gap between diplomatic process and battlefield reality appears to be stark.
- The United Kingdom will fight disinformation at home and abroad, and work to ensure global safety standards for artificial intelligence (AI), new Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Monday evening in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday called for intensified pressure on Russia to end its war against Ukraine, arguing that Moscow continues to incur massive losses while prolonging a conflict whose consequences are increasingly being felt far beyond the battlefield.
- UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts on Monday laid out a grim picture of the human cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with a spotlight on civilians facing a third wartime winter as well as the intimidation of Russians who have fled abroad.
- Over 1,000 cases of sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) in Ukraine have been documented from the start of Russia’s invasion to the end of July this year.
- In an underground classroom in Sumy, Ukraine, children sit quietly at their desks, busy with the day’s lessons. For the moment they are shielded from the horrors of nearly five years of war, but just barely.
- A drone strike on the protective structure at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant could have endangered the safety of millions of people, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Alexander De Croo told reporters via video link from Kyiv on Thursday.
- As the climate warms, the threat of wildfires is spreading in Europe. How can historically cooler and wetter countries prepare?
- A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Ukraine to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the UN agency said on Friday.
- Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 3,205 attacks on healthcare facilities have been carried out, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for Ukraine Jarno Habicht reported on Friday following fresh overnight strikes.
- As spiralling drone and missile attacks on civilians in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war continue, top UN officials told the Security Council on Monday that every diplomatic effort must work towards a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.
- Russian ballistic missile strikes killed 17 people and injured more than 40 in and around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, local authorities reported.
- As amber heat-health alerts spread across England this summer, a new study has found that the warnings are being received – but not changing behaviour.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine reached their highest monthly level in July, with more people killed and injured than at any time since March 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, HRMMU, said in an update on Thursday.
- Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine has left civilians vulnerable to repeated deadly attacks and humanitarian workers and key facilities being targeted and destroyed.
- In a new twist on panda diplomacy, UN Geneva welcomed five young peacocks to the Palace of Nations on Friday, a gift of India that preserves a tradition of keeping the stately birds in the grounds, that predates both the global body and its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations.
- More than 2,500 years after Homer’s epic was first told, Christopher Nolan's blockbuster retelling of The Odyssey has brought the journey back to big screens worldwide. But, behind the sweeping plot is another character facing an odyssey of its own: the Mediterranean Sea.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned on Wednesday the deadliest Russian strikes on Kyiv this year, which killed 17 people and caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure overnight.
- Russian forces hammered Ukraine with ballistic missiles and long-range drones overnight on Tuesday, killing at least 17 civilians – mainly around Kyiv – and injuring another 44, the UN human rights office in Ukraine reported.
- As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, with both sides stepping up airstrikes and drone attacks in recent weeks deep inside each other's territory, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed on Tuesday for greater protection for the war’s youngest victims.
- Cuba’s Foreign Minister warned the UN General Assembly on Saturday that escalating military and economic pressure in Latin America and the Caribbean was threatening international law, while accusing the United States of intensifying a decades-long campaign to isolate and weaken his country.
- Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand warned the UN General Assembly on Saturday that the international order has entered an era of profound disruption, calling for stronger multilateral cooperation and new partnerships as major powers increasingly turn away from global economic integration.
- Haiti is at a “watershed moment” in its struggle against gang violence and needs sustained international support alongside stronger national security institutions, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé told the UN General Assembly on Friday.
- “There is a people. A people who can wait no longer. A people waiting to regain security, to return home to work, to send their children to school, and to freely choose their leaders.” Those are the words of the Haitian Prime Minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who spoke at a special UN meeting on the future of security in Haiti.
- Venezuela is seeking to rebuild after a period of political upheaval and the destruction caused by twin earthquakes earlier this year, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez told world leaders at the United Nations on Wednesday.
- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the General Assembly on Tuesday that the UN needs to become a “temple of peace” once again, as it confronts one of the most critical periods in its 80-year history.
- US President Donald Trump used his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to defend recent military action against Iran, urging countries to maintain economic pressure on Tehran – and declaring that he now faces a choice between making a deal, or taking far more drastic steps.
- Haiti is facing a worsening child malnutrition crisis, with an estimated 253,725 children aged 6 to 59 months projected to suffer from acute malnutrition between June 2026 and May 2027, new UN-backed analysis has revealed.
- In Venezuela’s El Rodeo maximum security prison, some of those detained for political reasons are subject to forced intubation – and prolonged confinement in a sealed underground cistern.
- When UNICEF’s Representative in Haiti Geetanjali Narayan stepped into a classroom in Port-au-Prince at the start of the new school year, she asked the children a simple question: What did they most need from the UN children’s agency?
- In the heart of Manhattan in New York City, the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly visible.
- The recent earthquake in Colombia could increase the risk of child recruitment by armed groups in Chocó and Valle del Cauca, where thousands of children remain out of school in areas already affected by conflict, the UN warned on Friday.
- Following a deadly spate of gang attacks on civilians in Haiti and amid reports of illicit weapons slipping into the Caribbean country, the Security Council has called an emergency meeting at 3pm (local time) to hear and discuss the latest developments. UN News app users can follow our coverage here.
- The killings in Kenscoff began late Sunday, when armed men descended on the farming community in the hills overlooking Haiti’s capital, setting homes ablaze and attacking residents. By Monday, bodies lay in the streets and survivors were searching for missing relatives.
- Ten days after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, an estimated 1.2 million people need humanitarian assistance, while some communities have still received little or no aid, UN agencies said on Thursday.
- The UN is scaling up humanitarian assistance in western Colombia as needs continue to grow following last week’s devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake, according to the latest update released on Tuesday.
- In one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake that struck Colombia, hundreds of people are still waiting for news of missing relatives, friends and neighbours.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday upheld the safety of childhood vaccines in response to a new directive from the White House to overhaul the recommended inoculation schedule.
- The UN on Wednesday continued scaling up assistance to areas affected by the deadly earthquake that hit Colombia two days earlier.
- As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got”, in coordination with national authorities.
- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has voiced concern over Malaysia’s decision to return 1,476 people to Myanmar amid an ongoing civil war and a dire human rights and humanitarian situation.
- The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the UN General Assembly on Monday that its status as a nuclear-armed State was irreversible, arguing that its military capabilities were necessary to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula.
- India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar warned on Saturday that violent conflicts continue to undermine international peace and security, while countries far removed from the battlefield are being forced to pay a heavy price.
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese underlined the need for countries to work together to address the climate crisis, emerging technologies such as AI, and the breakdown of international rules, at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
- Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah brought a stark warning from the Himalayas to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, saying catastrophic floods that killed at least 1,400 people in his country laid bare the human cost of climate change, and the failure of the international system to protect those least responsible for it.
- Climate change remains the greatest existential threat to Tuvalu, Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the UN General Assembly on Friday, warning that the pace and scale of international action are still falling far short of what vulnerable island nations need.
- Nine years after the mass displacement of the Rohingya from Myanmar, their situation remains one of the world's most protracted and complex refugee crises, marked by years of persecution and uncertainty over the prospect of returning home.
- Rising sea levels and ever-more-powerful storms are eroding shorelines, submerging land and threatening to evict millions of people from their homes worldwide.
- The catastrophic flooding that swept away entire villages in northern Nepal could occur again in the country or elsewhere in the Himalayas due to climate change.
- The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran confirmed that civilians in the country suffered serious human rights violations and “crimes against humanity committed by their government,” while finding "reasonable grounds" to believe that the United States committed “war crimes” in the context of its ongoing conflict with the Islamic Republic.
- Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the continuing presence of terrorist groups as well as rights violations against women and girls are a growing concern as the Security Council met Wednesday to hear latest developments, including from a civil society representative who said being born as a woman in the country “is a crime”. Follow full coverage here.
- Three weeks after the devastating flash floods in Nepal, about 17,000 children require urgent mental health and psychosocial support in the country, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
- Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the plight of Afghans has only deteriorated, with millions impoverished while authorities violate basic human rights daily.
- Nepal’s call for financial compensation following recent deadly floods underlines the need to help countries that contribute the least to climate change – but are increasingly grappling with its most lethal consequences, the top UN official in the country said on Wednesday.
- The UN and its humanitarian partners launched a $49.6 million flash appeal on Friday to deliver emergency assistance to more than 84,000 people affected by last week’s catastrophic floods in Nepal.
- More than a week after flash floods struck the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli river basin in Nepal, at least 22,000 children urgently need safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene support, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.
- As rescue efforts continue in Nepal, humanitarians are focused on how the recent deadly flash floods have impacted women and girls, as well as access to healthcare.
- The confirmed death toll from Nepal’s catastrophic floods has surged to 903, with more than 4,200 still missing as rescue crews and humanitarian workers battle blocked highways to reach the hardest-hit areas, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday.
- The impact of the deadly flood in Nepal has been described as “immense” as the authorities there confirm that 538 bodies have been recovered from the disaster-stricken area.
- A day before a wall of ice, rock and muddy water tore through Himalayan valleys along the Nepal-China border, Dipesh Chapagain was discussing with a colleague just how devastating such a disaster could be.
- Children have been killed and injured in fresh fighting in Baidoa, in Somalia’s South West State, where families were already facing severe hunger and other overlapping crises.
- The Security Council met in New York on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Tuesday, where clashes between Government forces and M23 rebels continue in the east, despite a series of peace agreements. Ambassadors focused on ceasefire monitoring, rising tensions between the DRC and Rwanda and the country’s worst Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed more than 3,900 people.
- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
- Aid teams trying to keep deadly Ebola disease from spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are increasingly concerned about ongoing fighting and violence that has forced thousands of people to flee a displacement camp in the vast, resource-rich east of the country.
- Sudan’s Foreign Minister addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday in place of Chairperson of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, whose visa application was rejected by Washington.
- South Sudan remains committed to holding general elections in December to conclude its transition period, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Cecilia Adout Majok Adeng, told the General Assembly on Monday, calling for all sanctions, including the arms embargo to be lifted.
- The war in Sudan has devastated the economy and agricultural production, but a UN-backed plan aims to mobilise private sector investment to help farmers return to their fields.
- Africa should focus its use of technology on solving its own real challenges rather than copying the systems and priorities of other parts of the world.
- The UN said on Friday it remains gravely concerned by the continued deterioration of the security situation across northern Ethiopia, as fighting spreads across multiple fronts and increasingly disrupts humanitarian operations.
- The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cautioned against growing global demand for “blood-stained minerals” in the rush to net-zero, in her speech to the UN General Assembly.
- More than 130 days into the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health experts said on Wednesday that response efforts have been scaled up significantly and “the first encouraging signs of progress” are now being seen.
- War, inequality, climate change and artificial intelligence set the backdrop as world leaders took the floor for the opening day of the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level debate. Against a sombre picture of widening geopolitical divisions and mounting pressure on international law, speakers returned again and again to one central question: can multilateral cooperation deliver when it is needed most? This edition of The Takeaway distils the key points from Day 1.
- An Ebola vaccine programme is underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), involving frontline health workers and others involved in the response.
- Along the coast of Tanzania, in East Africa, the Indian Ocean is pushing saltwater ever farther inland, shrinking coconut harvests, driving fish away and leaving some residents wondering how much longer they can stay.
- The deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has taken a disproportionate toll on women and girls, many of whom are on the frontlines caring for patients as well as their own families despite the high risk of infection.
- The already dire hunger crisis in South Sudan is becoming increasingly critical as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
- The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
- The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and partners have delivered lifesaving assistance to families in conflict-affected communities in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, many of whom had gone months without humanitarian support.
- UN aid agencies on Monday said they may be forced to scale back humanitarian aid in Sudan – home of the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis – due to funding shortfalls.
- Independent human rights investigators voiced deep concern over growing risks to both civilians and South Sudan’s political transition following their latest fact-finding mission to the world’s youngest nation – their 14th in a decade.
- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
- Aid teams trying to keep deadly Ebola disease from spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are increasingly concerned about ongoing fighting and violence that has forced thousands of people to flee a displacement camp in the vast, resource-rich east of the country.
- COVID-19 killed millions, shattered health systems and brought the global economy to a virtual standstill. World leaders are meeting Friday to review the lessons learned and cement a new approach to prevention and preparation for the next pandemic. Hopes are high that a World Health Organization-led international agreement can move forward.
- More than 130 days into the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health experts said on Wednesday that response efforts have been scaled up significantly and “the first encouraging signs of progress” are now being seen.
- More children and young people are beating cancer, but progress remains uneven across regions and age groups, highlighting the need for increased investment to boost survival rates.
- An Ebola vaccine programme is underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), involving frontline health workers and others involved in the response.
- Six years after COVID-19 killed millions, battered health systems, disrupted lives and brought the global economy to a virtual standstill, the world is still grappling with how we can prepare better for the next pandemic.
- The deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has taken a disproportionate toll on women and girls, many of whom are on the frontlines caring for patients as well as their own families despite the high risk of infection.
- The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
- Smoking very likely makes it harder to have a baby, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a new publication issued on Tuesday, highlighting that women who smoke have a 40 per cent higher risk of infertility compared to non-smokers.
- As Ebola sweeps across the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), ensuring families meet their basic food needs is crucial to halt the spread of the deadly disease.
- A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Ukraine to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the UN agency said on Friday.
- The world must move faster to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that is growing exponentially, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator warned on Tuesday.
- The Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) requires “urgent” action and funding to rein in its alarming spread, the UN Secretary-General told reporters at UN Headquarters on Thursday.
- 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 on Wednesday during a meeting of health ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- A hundred days after the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak was declared, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing an epidemic of an unprecedented scale and efforts must grow to contain the spread in the eastern region and across borders, UN agencies warned on Monday.
- As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
- 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.
- Children, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease, account for half of the 46 suspected mpox cases identified in Guinea-Bissau – with 16 of them under the age of four.
- From the frontlines of the deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN World Health Organization (WHO) shared details on Tuesday of a massive push for community engagement, a day after yet another ambulance attack.
- What if the world tackled inequality with the same kind of scientific firepower it has brought to the climate crisis?
- Artificial Intelligence or AI – and the technology behind it – is moving fast. The question being asked across the world is who gets a seat at the table deciding how it's used and who gets to benefit.
- Sudan’s Foreign Minister addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday in place of Chairperson of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, whose visa application was rejected by Washington.
- South Sudan remains committed to holding general elections in December to conclude its transition period, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Cecilia Adout Majok Adeng, told the General Assembly on Monday, calling for all sanctions, including the arms embargo to be lifted.
- The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the UN General Assembly on Monday that its status as a nuclear-armed State was irreversible, arguing that its military capabilities were necessary to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula.
- After six days of speeches from the UN General Assembly podium, one word rose above all others: peace. This final edition of The Takeaway distils the messages he said reverberated through the Assembly Hall and looks at where the 193-member body goes from here.
- From artificial intelligence to migration, some of the forces reshaping the twenty-first century took centre stage at the UN General Assembly on Saturday. Leaders wrestled with a common dilemma: how to harness profound technological and social change without allowing it to deepen the divisions already separating countries and communities. This edition of The Takeaway distils key points from Day 5 of the annual high-level debate.
- Countries adopted on Saturday a new global blueprint for tackling rapidly evolving forms of crime, as the UN’s largest gathering on crime prevention and criminal justice opened in Abu Dhabi with a call for stronger international cooperation.
- China's Vice President, Han Zheng, urged the world to defend the postwar international order on Saturday, telling the UN General Assembly that geopolitical conflicts, widening development gaps and mounting global challenges make multilateralism more urgent than ever.
- Cuba’s Foreign Minister warned the UN General Assembly on Saturday that escalating military and economic pressure in Latin America and the Caribbean was threatening international law, while accusing the United States of intensifying a decades-long campaign to isolate and weaken his country.
- Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister warned on Saturday that escalating threats across the Middle East risked international peace, energy security and global trade, calling for stronger international cooperation to protect Gulf States and vital shipping routes.
- India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar warned on Saturday that violent conflicts continue to undermine international peace and security, while countries far removed from the battlefield are being forced to pay a heavy price.
- Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand warned the UN General Assembly on Saturday that the international order has entered an era of profound disruption, calling for stronger multilateral cooperation and new partnerships as major powers increasingly turn away from global economic integration.
- From the Caribbean to the Pacific, leaders from small island States demanded climate justice, ocean protection and greater solidarity at the UN General Assembly on Friday. They warned that rising seas are already redrawing national boundaries, while the ripple effects of faraway wars are being felt on their shores. This edition of The Takeaway summarizes key points made during the fourth day of the annual high-level debate.
- Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, accused Western countries of destabilising the world through “force and double standards” in his address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday, vowing that Moscow's “special military operation” in Ukraine would be “carried through to the end.”
- Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah brought a stark warning from the Himalayas to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, saying catastrophic floods that killed at least 1,400 people in his country laid bare the human cost of climate change, and the failure of the international system to protect those least responsible for it.
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese underlined the need for countries to work together to address the climate crisis, emerging technologies such as AI, and the breakdown of international rules, at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
- Iraq’s Prime Minister, Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi, said his country aims to exert its influence as an active economic power in the region, and as a bridge for dialogue and cooperation between its peoples.
- Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, has stressed that decisions over war and peace, and control of weapons, must rest solely with the State and its constitutional institutions.
- Climate change remains the greatest existential threat to Tuvalu, Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the UN General Assembly on Friday, warning that the pace and scale of international action are still falling far short of what vulnerable island nations need.
- Homicide rates are falling across much of the world, but organised crime is on the rise in many regions as criminal networks diversify into trafficking, migrant smuggling, and the exploitation of natural resources, a new UN report launched on Wednesday revealed.
- Countries adopted on Saturday a new global blueprint for tackling rapidly evolving forms of crime, as the UN’s largest gathering on crime prevention and criminal justice opened in Abu Dhabi with a call for stronger international cooperation.
- Sitting in her Vienna office ahead of a pivotal UN gathering in Abu Dhabi, Monica Juma is focused on a simple reality: crime has evolved faster than many of the institutions designed to combat it.
- The Security Council met to mark 25 years since the 9/11 attacks with a briefing on counter-terrorism as ambassadors take stock of a threat that has morphed dramatically since resolution 1373 built the council's counter-terrorism machinery in 2001. Briefers highlighted militants' growing use of artificial intelligence, drones and encrypted platforms for recruitment and attack planning.
- As criminal networks increasingly exploit weak institutions and operate across borders, the UN says no police force can tackle them alone.
- About 20 million children aged 12 to 17 – one in five across 21 countries – were sexually exploited by perpetrators using technology such as social media, according to a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released on Thursday.
- The killings in Kenscoff began late Sunday, when armed men descended on the farming community in the hills overlooking Haiti’s capital, setting homes ablaze and attacking residents. By Monday, bodies lay in the streets and survivors were searching for missing relatives.
- Conflicts can expose civilians and detainees to grave abuses; the challenge is not only to document these crimes, but also to ensure all survivors are recognised, protected and able to access justice and care.
- In the wake of President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia’s re-election for a second five-year term, UN human rights chief has raised concerns over the reported arrests and detention of political opponents in the country.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday responded to a new round of US sanctions targeting its president and a senior prosecutor, calling them “a flagrant attack” against the court.
- Independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts on Tuesday condemned the execution of at least 16 people in Singapore for drug-related offences this year and urged the country to end its “continued and unlawful use of capital punishment.”
- Authorities in Iran intercepted 3,663 kilogrammes of methamphetamines headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026, according to the UN’s drugs and crime fighting agency (UNODC).
- Five years into Taliban rule, Afghans still have almost no way of knowing whether soldiers, police and morality officers who abuse their power ever face consequences – and that secrecy is corroding trust in the State, the UN said Monday.
- Sofia* was 27, raising her seven-year-old son alone in Venezuela, and running out of options. For years she had distributed personal hygiene products door to door, but as her customers’ finances collapsed, so did her income.
- Afghans returning from neighbouring countries are facing growing risks of human trafficking and exploitation as overlapping humanitarian and economic crises leave many struggling to survive, the UN warned on Thursday.
- A job advert can hide a criminal network, and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations.
- Member States of the International Criminal Court dismissed its Prosecutor Karim Khan following disciplinary proceedings related to widely reported sexual misconduct allegations at an emergency session at UN Headquarters in New York on Friday.
- When conflict erupts, disasters strike or political crises unfold, courts are among the few institutions expected to keep functioning – ensuring the essential rule of law is maintained.
- Independent UN human rights experts on Tuesday condemned the M23 armed group’s “reign of terror” over territory it controls in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling for an end to the Rwanda-backed group’s sexual torture and violence against civilians.
- The UN General Assembly closed its first ever High-level Meeting on road safety on Tuesday by adopting a sweeping new declaration aimed at halving road deaths by 2030 – over the sole objection of the United States.
- World leaders met in the General Assembly Monday to assess how far the world has come in combating racism and how far it still has to go. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the most comprehensive framework of its kind, seeks to acknowledge historical injustices, dismantle inequalities and build societies grounded in dignity, equality and justice for all.
- Support for water and sanitation at the biggest camp in the world for Syrian refugees is under threat from a lack of funding – combined with the impact of climate change – the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Monday.
- “No country is free of racism.” That warning from US youth activist Marley Dias set the tone on Monday as UN Member States reinvigorated global efforts against racism, discrimination and xenophobia with a new declaration.
- The first generation to grow up with AI may also be the last one anyone thinks to ask about it – and that has to change, the UN's top human rights official said on Tuesday.
- Compare two children born in the same year: one in a country with functioning schools, social services, fair elections and a dynamic economy and the other in a nation devastated by poverty, conflict, climate change or corruption.
- Over 1,000 cases of sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) in Ukraine have been documented from the start of Russia’s invasion to the end of July this year.
- The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran confirmed that civilians in the country suffered serious human rights violations and “crimes against humanity committed by their government,” while finding "reasonable grounds" to believe that the United States committed “war crimes” in the context of its ongoing conflict with the Islamic Republic.
- Activists, lawyers and others who cooperate with the United Nations on human rights continue to face intimidation and reprisals, according to a new report issued on Wednesday by the Secretary-General that calls for greater protection and accountability.
- In Venezuela’s El Rodeo maximum security prison, some of those detained for political reasons are subject to forced intubation – and prolonged confinement in a sealed underground cistern.
- Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble of Gaza, three years after Israeli bombardment flattened entire neighbourhoods – most of them women and children.
- Voluntary self-regulation by companies developing frontier artificial intelligence (AI) is “nowhere near sufficient” to address existing harms and prevent advanced autonomous AI models from circumventing human safeguards, UN human rights chief Volker Türk wrote on Monday.
- Fatimah* was 13 when she was married off to an older man. Two years later, she gave birth to twin daughters.
- Independent human rights investigators voiced deep concern over growing risks to both civilians and South Sudan’s political transition following their latest fact-finding mission to the world’s youngest nation – their 14th in a decade.
- Twenty-five years ago, the heinous terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 against the United States claimed thousands of lives and represented “an assault on humanity itself”, the UN chief said on Thursday.
- Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the plight of Afghans has only deteriorated, with millions impoverished while authorities violate basic human rights daily.
- A successful and lasting transition in Syria requires comprehensive accountability, inclusion and guarantees that violations will not be repeated, UN independent investigators told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.
- The ongoing war in Sudan took centre stage at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday where the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, led calls for an end to attacks on civilians in “markets, hospitals [and] fuel stations”.
- UN human rights chief Volker Türk added his voice on Monday to growing calls for greater AI controls, warning that the revolutionary technology could become an “existential risk to humanity” if left unchecked.
- Israeli security forces forcibly displaced the entire population of three Palestine refugee camps in the occupied West Bank in January and February last year – and continue to prevent their return, in violation of international law, according to a new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR.
- About 20 million children aged 12 to 17 – one in five across 21 countries – were sexually exploited by perpetrators using technology such as social media, according to a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released on Thursday.
- Four in five households in Lebanon struggle to afford basic necessities today, with children increasingly going without food, missing school and being pushed into work as conflict compounds years of economic crisis. "I wanted to buy clothes for my children, but I could not. I also wanted to enrol them in school, but I could not afford that either," said one father of four, cited on Wednesday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
- The UN chief on Tuesday strongly condemned an airstrike that reportedly killed at least 50 people at a market in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and called for those responsible to be held to account.
- Heavy fighting in Yemen is fuelling concerns of an uptick in cholera, measles and other preventable diseases, as overcrowding at displacement sites threatens to overwhelm the limited healthcare services still open.
- The Security Council met in New York on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Tuesday, where clashes between Government forces and M23 rebels continue in the east, despite a series of peace agreements. Ambassadors focused on ceasefire monitoring, rising tensions between the DRC and Rwanda and the country’s worst Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed more than 3,900 people.
- The Security Council met Monday morning with prospects for peace in the Middle East under strain on two fronts. In the West Bank, settler violence and settlement expansion are raising fears for a two-State solution. In Gaza, a year-old peace plan has stalled while civilian suffering continues. The meeting comes as the plan’s remaining phases, including Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal, remain unimplemented, and as the illegality of settlements under international law remains a key point of contention.
- Support for water and sanitation at the biggest camp in the world for Syrian refugees is under threat from a lack of funding – combined with the impact of climate change – the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Monday.
- Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
- The situation in the occupied West Bank continues to deteriorate, the UN human rights office has said, pointing to the “mass destruction” of Palestinian villages and forcible transfer of residents in Msafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills.
- The UN said on Friday it remains gravely concerned by the continued deterioration of the security situation across northern Ethiopia, as fighting spreads across multiple fronts and increasingly disrupts humanitarian operations.
- The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) continues to operate under “extraordinary pressure”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.
- “There is a people. A people who can wait no longer. A people waiting to regain security, to return home to work, to send their children to school, and to freely choose their leaders.” Those are the words of the Haitian Prime Minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who spoke at a special UN meeting on the future of security in Haiti.
- Nine years after the mass displacement of the Rohingya from Myanmar, their situation remains one of the world's most protracted and complex refugee crises, marked by years of persecution and uncertainty over the prospect of returning home.
- As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
- The UN has condemned continued cross‑border attacks by Houthi forces against Saudi Arabia, including an attempted strike on the capital Riyadh, as fighting inside Yemen drives one of the country’s fastest displacement surges in years.
- Haiti is facing a worsening child malnutrition crisis, with an estimated 253,725 children aged 6 to 59 months projected to suffer from acute malnutrition between June 2026 and May 2027, new UN-backed analysis has revealed.
- People displaced by the renewed fighting in Yemen have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
- The catastrophic flooding that swept away entire villages in northern Nepal could occur again in the country or elsewhere in the Himalayas due to climate change.
- Renewed fighting in Yemen is deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis in a country where more than 12 million children depend on aid, after more than a decade of conflict.
- The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking to raise $97.5 million to protect 540,000 children and their families in Gaza and the West Bank from harsh winter conditions in the coming months.
- Search and rescue operations continued in Gaza City on Wednesday following the collapse of a bombed-out building that killed at least 20 people, according to reports.
- A new academic year is underway in many countries across the world, yet millions of children still attend schools where the water is unsafe to drink, toilets are unusable and there is nowhere to properly wash their hands.
- The world's first scientific body on artificial intelligence (AI) called on Monday for safeguards to be adapted as current firewalls are “unravelling”.
- The UN Secretary-General has called for concerted action by governments, technology companies and civil society to stamp out hate speech, emphasizing that “its toxic message is spreading fast and striking deep”.
- In an underground classroom in Sumy, Ukraine, children sit quietly at their desks, busy with the day’s lessons. For the moment they are shielded from the horrors of nearly five years of war, but just barely.
- When UNICEF’s Representative in Haiti Geetanjali Narayan stepped into a classroom in Port-au-Prince at the start of the new school year, she asked the children a simple question: What did they most need from the UN children’s agency?
- While September traditionally marks the start of the school year across the northern hemisphere, a staggering 93 million children are not in class at all amid an unprecedented number of attacks on learning, education experts warned on Wednesday.
- The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to encourage governments, schools and tech companies worldwide to stop using maps that make Africa look far smaller than it really is.
- The seizure of a vocational training centre in occupied East Jerusalem has left hundreds of Palestinian young people without access to skills and training that could help shape their futures.
- For millions of children in Sudan, the classroom remains out of reach as the country’s civil war continues to disrupt their education. To help tackle this huge problem, the UN global education fund on Monday announced a $22 million initiative to help 200,000 youngsters return to learning.
- A single New York Times article on a disaster generated an additional $500,000 in official aid. That’s just one of the findings on the critical role a free press plays in saving lives, according to a new UN report released on Tuesday.
- Five years since the Taliban seized power in Kabul, life for some Afghans has improved while many others suffer growing hardship.
- As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transforms everything from how we learn, to the job market, children are adopting the technology more than three times faster than adults – exposing them to unique opportunities and risks.
- More than eight in 10 young people aged 15 to 24 worldwide are now online, and in low-income countries they outpace the rest of the population nearly two to one.
- Sarah Tekhlu was ready to give up on university. An Eritrean refugee, she had already been displaced once from Khartoum to Madani, then again to Port Sudan, as war tore through the country around her. Higher education, she had decided, was a luxury she could no longer afford to want.
- As climate change reshapes Indigenous territories across Brazil, a new generation is turning to culture and digital platforms to defend their lands and their future.
- More than 1,000 days of war in Sudan have left millions of children out of school, displaced or exposed to grave violations, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Friday, calling for renewed action to end the conflict.
- From the peaks of Mount Olympus in Greece to the shores of the “D-Day” beaches in France, 25 cultural or natural landmarks from across the globe have been newly inscribed on the World Heritage List, updated annually by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
- Armed conflict, insecurity and environmental pressures are threatening ancient cities, historic castles and one of the world's greatest wildlife migrations.
- When Samantha Richards and Angela Hifume walked into the Hall of Flags at United Nations Headquarters last week, they carried more than a folder of paper. They carried the voices of hundreds of street-connected children who had never expected anyone to listen.
- Choosing a path for the future has never been easy, but for young people today, such rapid technological change as artificial intelligence (AI) is making it increasingly difficult to predict which skills will remain relevant in the years ahead.
- The continuing conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global energy markets and pushing up fuel prices, with knock-on effects far beyond the region.
- The war in Sudan has devastated the economy and agricultural production, but a UN-backed plan aims to mobilise private sector investment to help farmers return to their fields.
- World News in Brief: ‘New intensity’ to Russian attacks on Ukraine, Yemen, Gaza and Colombia updatesRussian armed forces have carried out repeated attacks across Ukraine over the past several days, killing and injuring civilians and damaging homes, hospitals, shops and workplaces, UN human rights monitors said on Thursday.
- From deadly floods in the Himalayas to wildfires and extreme heat across Europe, 2026 has brought a succession of stark reminders of a changing climate. The task is immediate: Protect people from the impacts already unfolding while rapidly cutting the emissions of harmful gasses driving climate change. World leaders have been meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to turn those priorities into action.
- “We are the first generation with the tools to end the fossil fuel age – and the last who can avert climate catastrophe,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, calling on countries to draw up credible roadmaps with clear timelines to transition away from fossil fuels.
- For Benin, making progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has meant finding new ways to finance development.
- Voluntary self-regulation by companies developing frontier artificial intelligence (AI) is “nowhere near sufficient” to address existing harms and prevent advanced autonomous AI models from circumventing human safeguards, UN human rights chief Volker Türk wrote on Monday.
- Migrants sent $728.6 billion home to families in low and middle-income countries in 2025, nearly double the amount recorded a decade earlier, according to a new report from the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres told leaders of a bloc of major emerging economies in New Delhi on Sunday that a more balanced global order requires an overhaul of the institutions built after the Second World War, including the UN Security Council.
- The UN Security Council has welcomed a breakthrough agreement between Libya's rival political blocs, calling it "an important step" towards the country's first national elections in over a decade – while pressing all sides to move quickly from paper to practice.
- Use of data-intensive technologies – in particular artificial intelligence (AI) data centres – is growing faster than electricity infrastructure can handle, the UN’s economic commission for Europe has warned, raising concerns about the future reliability and resilience of energy systems worldwide.
- The global shipping industry is facing a "genuinely unprecedented" convergence of maritime crises, with vessels and seafarers increasingly used as “leverage” in conflicts that have nothing to do with them.
- Amid reports that hundreds of people are still missing in Nepal and China after a floodwater surge slammed into towns and villages on Wednesday, aid teams have been working to reach communities cut off by the disaster.
- From piracy and migrant smuggling to disruptions affecting global shipping routes, countries bordering one of the world’s busiest waterways are seeking closer cooperation to stay ahead of fast-evolving maritime threats.
- As heatwaves are turning deadlier, fires and disasters are razing cities — and rising seas are erasing territories — one environmental crisis remains dangerously overlooked: the degradation of the land beneath our feet.
- Communities in Syria are clearing rubble and rebuilding neighbourhoods and livelihoods torn down in the more than a decade of conflict and crisis in the country.
- In the occupied West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, appealed on Thursday to Israeli authorities to help Palestinian families trapped in their homes by settlers for days, amid an intensifying campaign to seize their land.
- A strike on a merchant ship off the southern coast of Yemen that reportedly killed several seafarers on Tuesday threatens to reignite deep concerns about global trade, amid the ongoing Iran-US war that has choked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got”, in coordination with national authorities.
- Frustrated by skyrocketing youth unemployment, among other issues, tens of thousands of Gen Z activists took to the streets of Nepal last year, demanding a stake in the country’s economic growth. The protest worked and the prime minister resigned.
- At the current rate of progress, gender equality would take 171 years to achieve, a new UN report finds as institutions built to advance gains are being defunded and demobilised.
- In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
- Gloria Steinem, the journalist and women's rights campaigner who became one of the most influential voices of the feminist movement, has died at the age of 92. In an announcement on Instagram, her family said she had passed away on Wednesday at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her.
- An independent UN human rights expert has welcomed ongoing proceedings in the United States to extradite “manosphere” bloggers Andrew and Tristan Tate to the United Kingdom, calling the case an important step towards accountability for serious allegations of violence against women and girls.
- In El Obeid, women and girls now face an impossible choice over something as basic as a bucket of water: risk a drone strike by collecting it in daylight, or risk rape by waiting until dark.
- One month after twin earthquakes rocked Venezuela, thousands of women and girls continue to face difficulty in accessing essential healthcare and protection services, a senior official with the UN reproductive and sexual health agency UNFPA said on Friday.
- When a 12-story apartment building pancaked in La Guaira, Venezuela, following two powerful earthquakes late last month, panic ensued to save people injured or trapped under the rubble.
- Thousands of people in some of Yemen's most conflict-affected communities are receiving lifesaving health care closer to home, thanks to funding from the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) through the Yemen Humanitarian Fund.
- A UN independent human rights expert has urged political leaders in the United Kingdom to support implementation of a Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of sex, warning that opposition to updated equality guidance risks weakening protections for women and girls.
- At least one million women and girls have lost access to critical humanitarian support since January 2025 as unprecedented aid cuts push women's organizations in crisis zones to the brink of collapse, the UN’s gender equality agency, UN Women, said on Friday.
- A Senegalese surgeon who has dedicated his career to restoring the health and dignity of women living with obstetric fistula, and a Burundian foundation supporting vulnerable women and children, have been named the winners of the 2026 United Nations Population Award.
- Ongoing fighting in the Sudanese city of El Obeid continues to endanger civilians and damage infrastructure, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
- As artificial intelligence reshapes how people work, communicate and access information, UN Women warned on Monday that the technology is reproducing old gender stereotypes, which amplify online abuse and leave women out of the decisions that will define the digital future.
- In the heart of the Central African Republic (CAR), a nation long marked by conflict, Nina Mireille Yankinon stands as a symbol of resilience, leadership, and hope, dedicating her life to helping communities torn apart by war.
- Gender equality agency UN Women is “gravely concerned” by the arrest of at least 30 women in Herat city last weekend in Afghanistan for allegedly violating dress requirements imposed by Taliban authorities.
- Women and girls in Lebanon are paying an increasingly devastating price as violence and displacement continue despite a ceasefire, the UN reproductive health agency (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday.
- Nearly 10,000 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were recorded worldwide last year – more than double the previous year's figure – as rape, sexual slavery and abduction were deployed as weapons of war across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean.
- Thirteen-year-old Mona still remembers the moment the second airstrike hit.
- Afghanistan’s deepening malnutrition crisis is pushing mothers and children to the brink, the UN World Food Programme has warned, as mass returns from neighbouring countries and severe funding shortfalls overwhelm already strained humanitarian operations.
- Many women in eastern Chad are being forced to give birth in overcrowded clinics with limited medicine, minimal equipment and severe shortages of anesthesia, as a worsening humanitarian crisis overwhelms the country’s fragile healthcare system, the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, warned on Tuesday.
- Children have been killed and injured in fresh fighting in Baidoa, in Somalia’s South West State, where families were already facing severe hunger and other overlapping crises.
- Four in five households in Lebanon struggle to afford basic necessities today, with children increasingly going without food, missing school and being pushed into work as conflict compounds years of economic crisis. "I wanted to buy clothes for my children, but I could not. I also wanted to enrol them in school, but I could not afford that either," said one father of four, cited on Wednesday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
- UN teams are racing to protect families in Gaza from the coming rainy season, but restricted access to land and shortages of critical supplies are hampering the effort, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
- Heavy fighting in Yemen is fuelling concerns of an uptick in cholera, measles and other preventable diseases, as overcrowding at displacement sites threatens to overwhelm the limited healthcare services still open.
- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
- The Security Council met in New York on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Tuesday, where clashes between Government forces and M23 rebels continue in the east, despite a series of peace agreements. Ambassadors focused on ceasefire monitoring, rising tensions between the DRC and Rwanda and the country’s worst Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed more than 3,900 people.
- Amid rising tensions, extreme weather impacts and strikes on nuclear infrastructure in war-torn Iran and Ukraine, UN Member States returned to the core issue of disarmament on Tuesday, closing out the General Assembly’s High-Level Week with calls for greater safeguards.
- The UN chief on Tuesday strongly condemned an airstrike that reportedly killed at least 50 people at a market in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and called for those responsible to be held to account.
- Aid teams trying to keep deadly Ebola disease from spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are increasingly concerned about ongoing fighting and violence that has forced thousands of people to flee a displacement camp in the vast, resource-rich east of the country.
- The Security Council met Monday morning with prospects for peace in the Middle East under strain on two fronts. In the West Bank, settler violence and settlement expansion are raising fears for a two-State solution. In Gaza, a year-old peace plan has stalled while civilian suffering continues. The meeting comes as the plan’s remaining phases, including Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal, remain unimplemented, and as the illegality of settlements under international law remains a key point of contention.
- Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
- At a time when war, climate crises and man-made disasters continue to displace millions around the world, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees briefed the Security Council on Friday.
- The situation in the occupied West Bank continues to deteriorate, the UN human rights office has said, pointing to the “mass destruction” of Palestinian villages and forcible transfer of residents in Msafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills.
- The UN said on Friday it remains gravely concerned by the continued deterioration of the security situation across northern Ethiopia, as fighting spreads across multiple fronts and increasingly disrupts humanitarian operations.
- “There is a people. A people who can wait no longer. A people waiting to regain security, to return home to work, to send their children to school, and to freely choose their leaders.” Those are the words of the Haitian Prime Minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who spoke at a special UN meeting on the future of security in Haiti.
- World News in Brief: ‘New intensity’ to Russian attacks on Ukraine, Yemen, Gaza and Colombia updatesRussian armed forces have carried out repeated attacks across Ukraine over the past several days, killing and injuring civilians and damaging homes, hospitals, shops and workplaces, UN human rights monitors said on Thursday.
- The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) continues to operate under “extraordinary pressure”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday.
- More than 130 days into the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health experts said on Wednesday that response efforts have been scaled up significantly and “the first encouraging signs of progress” are now being seen.
- Five years of war. Another winter closing in. Today, the Security Council once again debates a path to peace – though any resolution still runs up against the veto of Russia, one of its own permanent members, whose objections have repeatedly stalled any consensus. As world leaders take the floor, the gap between diplomatic process and battlefield reality appears to be stark.
- From deadly floods in the Himalayas to wildfires and extreme heat across Europe, 2026 has brought a succession of stark reminders of a changing climate. The task is immediate: Protect people from the impacts already unfolding while rapidly cutting the emissions of harmful gasses driving climate change. World leaders have been meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to turn those priorities into action.
- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has voiced concern over Malaysia’s decision to return 1,476 people to Myanmar amid an ongoing civil war and a dire human rights and humanitarian situation.
- Haji Mohammad Shafi spent 44 years in Pakistan before he was forced to leave. He sold everything he owned and returned to Afghanistan with his five children, arriving with almost nothing.
- Nine years after the mass displacement of the Rohingya from Myanmar, their situation remains one of the world's most protracted and complex refugee crises, marked by years of persecution and uncertainty over the prospect of returning home.
- The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking to raise $97.5 million to protect 540,000 children and their families in Gaza and the West Bank from harsh winter conditions in the coming months.
- Migrants sent $728.6 billion home to families in low and middle-income countries in 2025, nearly double the amount recorded a decade earlier, according to a new report from the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
- At least 46,000 people have been displaced since renewed fighting last week between Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in southwestern Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Friday.
- Severe weather, war, economic pressure and shifting policies reshaped migration journeys across multiple regions in the first four months of 2026, driving a surge in deaths, according to new data released on Wednesday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
- A job advert can hide a criminal network, and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations.
- As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has launched a global campaign urging governments, organizations and individuals to renew their commitment to protecting people forced to flee war, violence and persecution.
- The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) reports that 144 migrants attempting to reach Europe are dead or missing due to a series of “tragic maritime incidents” off the coast of Mauritania last week.
- The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has appealed for calm in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir amid unrest ahead of regional elections.
- There is growing concern for at least 500 people believed to have been aboard two boats that reportedly capsized off Myanmar’s coast in recent days.
- Protection for refugees has been enshrined in international law for more than seven decades, but how much support is there today for those fleeing conflict and persecution?
- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the international community to strengthen support for the nearly 42 million people worldwide who have fled their home countries to escape conflict, violence or persecution.
- When 19-year-old Stephane Kulimushi looks around the basketball court in Kampala where he trains young refugees, he sees more than players.
- As millions of people continue to flee their countries due to war or persecution, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, called on Tuesday for an urgent expansion of refugee resettlement programmes, warning that available places continue to fall short of global needs.
- Haiti has opened its first State-supported safe house for survivors of sexual violence with support from the UN, marking a significant step in responding to the growing crisis affecting women and girls.
- Global forced displacement has decreased for the first time in a decade, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported on Thursday, though the figure remains unacceptably high and tens of millions of people are still trapped in prolonged exile with little prospect of rebuilding their lives.
- Escalating gang violence across Haiti has pushed displacement to record levels, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis and leaving nearly 1.5 million people without a stable place to live, according to new figures released Friday by the UN migration agency, IOM.
- The UN and its partners are continuing efforts to contain Ebola outbreaks in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, while warning that insecurity and misinformation remain major obstacles to the response.
- What if the world tackled inequality with the same kind of scientific firepower it has brought to the climate crisis?
- Artificial Intelligence or AI – and the technology behind it – is moving fast. The question being asked across the world is who gets a seat at the table deciding how it's used and who gets to benefit.
- Food waste is helping to fuel global warming, one half-eaten sandwich at a time.
- Africa should focus its use of technology on solving its own real challenges rather than copying the systems and priorities of other parts of the world.
- Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking Declaration on the Right to Development this December, world leaders gathered at a High-Level Week meeting on Wednesday to map progress made and the 21st century challenges still ahead – from narrowing the digital divide to levelling the AI playing field – as the UN chief presented a “blueprint” to address promises that remain unfulfilled.
- A new academic year is underway in many countries across the world, yet millions of children still attend schools where the water is unsafe to drink, toilets are unusable and there is nowhere to properly wash their hands.
- In northern Kenya, a herder scans the sky for rain that hasn't come. The grass his animals need is thinning by the day.
- Global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025 showing that progress is possible, but gains remain fragile and far too slow to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline.
- UN Member States reaffirmed their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by adopting a declaration on Wednesday that they will implement reforms to help close the $4 trillion SDG financing gap.
- Humanitarians in the Gaza Strip continue to face significant challenges in reaching communities located near the so-called “Yellow Line” in northern Rafah, the UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Tuesday.
- In a world of “parallel realities” where stark inequalities seemingly divide people and challenge the promise of multilateralism, the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to bring people together and help them achieve a better reality.
- From local communities to the global stage, a diverse group of young leaders from Thailand is helping shape conversations on public policy, climate action, inclusion, indigenous rights, disability access and youth wellbeing.
- Fertility rates are falling worldwide not because young people are rejecting marriage, children or family life but because many are facing economic and housing constraints.
- Who is legally responsible when Artificial Intelligence causes harm? The issue took centre stage on Tuesday – day two of the first ever UN summit on AI governance, where leading experts warned of mounting evidence of human rights violations linked to the revolutionary technology.
- With fewer than five years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new UN report says sustained investment and international cooperation have improved billions of lives, but warns that governments must urgently accelerate action if the goals are to be met by their 2030 deadline.
- The way societies talk about ageing can shape everything from public policy to people's own expectations of later life, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said on Wednesday in a new report that calls for shifting away from narratives that portray older persons as a burden.
- A UN vehicle standards forum has approved the first global regulations for fully autonomous driving systems (ADS), marking a major step towards the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles.
- Young people working on promoting peace in some of the world’s most fragile and polarised places say financial support remains essential, but money alone will not sustain their efforts to organize youth to participate in peacebuilding.
- With the World Cup just days away, 16 greats of the game have been appointed Football for the Goals (FFTG) Champions, using their profiles to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advocate for a better future for people and the planet.
- Disruptions to global energy supplies and trade corridors are driving up the cost of food, transport and essential goods worldwide, slowing economic growth and increasing pressure on vulnerable households and debt-strapped developing countries.
