UN News
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is assisting Nigeria following confirmation of the first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the country.
- The use of live ammunition, arson and the destruction of centuries-old olive trees have marked the opening weeks of this year’s harvest in the occupied West Bank.
- With global temperature rise set to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, countries “must pull out all the stops” and urgently cut emissions to minimize the overshoot and return to the internationally agreed threshold by the end of this century.
- Two UN agencies issued a powerful appeal on Wednesday for immediate assistance to help communities already being impacted by the strongest El Niño weather pattern on record.
- Talks to halt the fighting in Sudan and alleviate the humanitarian crisis there continued in Geneva on Wednesday, where nearly two dozen countries convened to discuss a pathway to a ceasefire and transition to peaceful governance that represents all Sudanese people.
- Representatives from across the international community are meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to ensure that children everywhere can thrive in a world marred by war, climate chaos and other fundamental challenges.
- The price tag for smuggling on European sea routes reached up to half a billion dollars last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN migration office, IOM, reported on Wednesday.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up emergency health response operations across Afar, Amhara and Tigray in Ethiopia to address growing humanitarian and health needs resulting from ongoing hostilities.
- Three years on from the reported resumption of large-scale forcible returns of nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from China, serious concerns persist about their fate, according to a group of Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts.
- Following extreme hunger warnings, a bitter reality is unfolding across Afghanistan: food is available, but remains inaccessible for millions of people.
- At 14, Bushra faced being married off – until community leaders at a UNICEF-supported child protection hub worked with her father to prevent her from being given away against her will.
- Artificial intelligence is already being widely used on the battlefield, and the role of human judgment in military operations is shrinking rapidly, the head of the UN’s independent disarmament research institute warned on Tuesday.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- The UN warned on Tuesday against a premature withdrawal of its peacekeepers as the war in Sudan spills over into the Central African Republic (CAR).
- Funding shortages have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to slash assistance to hungry families in the Gaza Strip by roughly one third – a move that will affect some 500,000 people as winter approaches, the UN agency announced on Monday.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres paid tribute to Indonesian peacekeepers on Monday, laying a wreath in honour of four who recently lost their lives in Lebanon and offering a robust defence of UN peacekeeping in what he called “testing times for peace”.
- Israeli attacks on war-torn Gaza over the weekend killed at least six Palestinians, including children, despite a year-old ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settler violence continued through the ongoing olive harvest, with UN independent experts on Monday urging Israel to protect Palestinian farmers.
- Armed groups in Haiti are adapting to intensified security operations, stepping up reprisals against civilians and extending their reach into rural areas, the UN warned the Security Council on Monday.
- Biodiversity losses continue to upend the lives of billions of people whose future prosperity depends on countries taking urgent action to protect our planet, the top UN official leading talks at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, said on Monday.
- Drone strikes killed and injured dozens across Sudan on Monday as the ongoing war continues to cause soaring displacement and hunger.
- The use of live ammunition, arson and the destruction of centuries-old olive trees have marked the opening weeks of this year’s harvest in the occupied West Bank.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- Funding shortages have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to slash assistance to hungry families in the Gaza Strip by roughly one third – a move that will affect some 500,000 people as winter approaches, the UN agency announced on Monday.
- Israeli attacks on war-torn Gaza over the weekend killed at least six Palestinians, including children, despite a year-old ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settler violence continued through the ongoing olive harvest, with UN independent experts on Monday urging Israel to protect Palestinian farmers.
- Like many people in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, Ahmed Al-Omari is preparing for another winter of bitter cold and rain that threatens to cause flooding as families struggle to survive in tattered tents and damaged buildings.
- A little over one year since a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hamas fighters and Israel, more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
- Amid a rise in lethal Israeli strikes, demolitions and violence in Gaza and the West Bank, the Security Council held an open debate on Thursday focusing on the current situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for promoting, providing and protecting health in the Eastern Mediterranean region, home to some of the world’s top humanitarian crises such as Sudan, Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
- Intensifying fighting in Yemen has cut off life-saving assistance to 800,000 people as shifting frontlines, blocked roads and growing insecurity severely restrict access to the city of Taiz and other conflict zones, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.
- Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz is facing a “devastating” humanitarian crisis as escalating tensions are dramatically driving up food prices and causing shortages of supplies, the UN Spokesperson said on Tuesday.
- The Security Council met to debate Syria's thorny transition Monday as it faces pressure on several fronts. Economic hardship is fuelling unrest, Israeli incursions continue in the south and sectarian tensions persist in Sweida, even as Damascus reports progress on its chemical weapons programme and talks about future elections. Millions, meanwhile, remain displaced. Follow live below and go here for full meetings coverage.
- Nidaa, Hanaa and Hanin have different stories, but share a common thread: the determination to build something of their own and keep it going despite extraordinary challenges facing them in war-ravaged Gaza.
- At least 139 migrants have died after their boat capsized off Djibouti, with a further 84 people still missing, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Sunday.
- The Security Council met to discuss the crisis in Yemen Friday, where a Houthi offensive launched in September has sharply escalated the 12-year-long war for control of the country and spillover from the US-Iran war has provoked a new displacement crisis. Live coverage below and for full meetings updates, go here.
- Six weeks after Nepal’s deadly flooding disaster, communities are still struggling to rebuild their lives, but they will need sustained help as global warming increases the risk of another Himalayan catastrophe, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that significantly more resources are required to scale up its response in Yemen amid escalating conflict and rising needs.
- Sixty-nine Palestinians – more than half of them children – were displaced on Tuesday after Israeli authorities green lit the demolition of their residential building in the At Tur area of East Jerusalem, the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) has reported.
- Intense fighting in Yemen has forced more than 184,000 people from their homes since the start of August, most of them since early September, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Monday.
- Three years after Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked Israel, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said nothing can justify the atrocities of 7 October – calling for an end to the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
- Repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and more from Israel into Gaza risk having devastating consequences on Palestinians who urgently need them in the war-torn enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
- The price tag for smuggling on European sea routes reached up to half a billion dollars last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN migration office, IOM, reported on Wednesday.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine remain at record levels, with intensified Russian attacks in September continuing a pattern of harm in 2026 far exceeding previous years, UN human rights monitors in Ukraine said on Friday.
- Ongoing and deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine are causing serious healthcare disruption, with more than $1.5 million-worth of medicines and supplies destroyed in four separate strikes on warehouses used by the UN there since July.
- Escalating violence and human rights violations in the four-year-old Russia-Ukraine war are in the spotlight in the Security Council on Friday following a spate of Russian attacks against civilian targets and infrastructure in recent days.
- Health authorities in Russia say there is “no plague case” in Siberia following reports last week that a lab technician had died of pneumonia of an unknown origin in the region, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Wednesday.
- The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine on Wednesday called for an end to attacks against civilians following further overnight strikes by Russian forces that reportedly killed at least 19 in the Chernihiv Region.
- The death of a lab worker in Russia’s Siberia region has sparked concerns over a possible plague case, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, adding that it was following the situation closely.
- The war in Ukraine is a human rights catastrophe that is “growing and intensifying by the week” and threatening an even greater disaster across the region, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Friday.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Armed groups in Haiti are adapting to intensified security operations, stepping up reprisals against civilians and extending their reach into rural areas, the UN warned the Security Council on Monday.
- “I tell my kids I work in a time machine,” said Rhony Dostaly. In a basement beneath Lincoln Center, the media preservation engineer rescues moments from the past. “I go back in time, and I grab elements, and I make them available for people today.”
- UN independent experts welcomed on Wednesday a recent landmark corporate accountability ruling involving the Ecopetrol oil company by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, calling for reparations for victims.
- Haiti is living through one of the world’s most acute security crises. Armed gangs control large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are pushing into rural areas, terrorising communities, killing people, committing rape and other sexual assaults, kidnapping for ransom and extorting individuals and businesses.
- Nearly 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace agreement to end a decades-long insurgency, the deal is under strain from growing insecurity – and the UN’s top official in the country says it cannot be allowed to falter.
- The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Friday warned that livestreaming a planned execution by firing squad in the United States would amount to a public execution and breach the absolute prohibition on torture.
- A documentary drawn from United Nations University research was screened at the COP30 climate conference and film festivals across Europe. Its most important journey, though, was the one back to the Mexico City canals where it was filmed.
- The UN human rights chief and nine independent rights experts on Thursday called on authorities in Tennessee not to pursue any further attempts to execute Christa Pike, saying her case highlights multiple concerns surrounding the death penalty.
- 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.
- Three years on from the reported resumption of large-scale forcible returns of nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from China, serious concerns persist about their fate, according to a group of Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts.
- Following extreme hunger warnings, a bitter reality is unfolding across Afghanistan: food is available, but remains inaccessible for millions of people.
- Acute malnutrition and hunger in Afghanistan have reached the highest levels ever recorded, with 15.9 million people facing acute food insecurity and conditions set to worsen in the coming months, according to a global hunger monitor report released on Thursday.
- The United Nations has rushed to assist Nepal following new flash floods in the central Gorkha district on Sunday that swept away homes and bridges just weeks after catastrophic flooding in the north.
- For generations, farming in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta has depended on a delicate bargain. The river flooded, retreated and flooded again, carrying freshwater and sediment across a flat landscape whose vast fields helped turn the country into one of the world’s leading rice exporters.
- The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has voiced concern over reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, civil society members, lawyers and journalists, before and during large-scale protests in Delhi on Saturday.
- Years of conflict, displacement, economic disruption and climate shocks in Myanmar have led to the “simultaneous collapse” of shelter, healthcare, schooling and livelihoods affecting millions of people, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a report issued on Thursday.
- Afghan women and girls are being arrested, detained and threatened with arrest by Taliban authorities, the UN warned on Thursday as record numbers of returnees struggle to rebuild their lives back home.
- The UN Secretary-General appealed on Tuesday for an end to the United States-Iran war and the toll it has taken on global trade, as he began an official visit to Pakistan.
- Across Papua New Guinea, water sources are drying up, crops are failing and food prices are rising months before the worst agricultural impacts are expected. Behind those warning signs is an El Niño whose Pacific Ocean temperatures have already surpassed the equivalent measurements during the historic 1997 and 2015 events – part of an unfolding climate pattern being dubbed a “Super El Niño” by some climate watchers.
- “Your mind follows the thread, one by one, row by row. You know? It’s like meditation. I don’t like machines.”
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made public four arrest warrants against senior Taliban figures, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, which amounts to a crime against humanity.
- The deadly flash floods in northern Nepal have severely disrupted employment and livelihoods, with wider impacts beyond communities that were directly affected, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a preliminary assessment released on Thursday.
- 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.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is assisting Nigeria following confirmation of the first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the country.
- Talks to halt the fighting in Sudan and alleviate the humanitarian crisis there continued in Geneva on Wednesday, where nearly two dozen countries convened to discuss a pathway to a ceasefire and transition to peaceful governance that represents all Sudanese people.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- The UN warned on Tuesday against a premature withdrawal of its peacekeepers as the war in Sudan spills over into the Central African Republic (CAR).
- Drone strikes killed and injured dozens across Sudan on Monday as the ongoing war continues to cause soaring displacement and hunger.
- As drone strikes kill civilians from El Obeid to Blue Nile and famine risk spreads across Darfur and Kordofan, the Security Council meets on Sudan – the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Ambassadors are expected to press yet again for a ceasefire, safe aid access and an end to the weapons flows fuelling the brutal conflict.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to support Kenya’s efforts to contain Ebola after a second person tested positive for the Bundibugyo virus, the UN agency’s representative in the country said on Thursday.
- Despite progress in the political process in Libya, institutional divisions, economic deterioration and security fragility continue to threaten stability, the UN envoy warned the Security Council on Wednesday, calling on Libyan leaders to overcome their differences to pave the way for national elections.
- The cholera epidemic continues to spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where more than 125,000 suspected cases and 3,644 suspected deaths were recorded between January 2025 and the end of September 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
- The risk of famine is growing in parts of Sudan already torn apart by war, as a severe El Niño drought makes life even harder in Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, the UN-backed global hunger monitor warned on Monday.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an immediate end to the renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia, saying he is deeply worried by reports that Eritrean forces are present in the country.
- Adam Ouattara and Makongo Traoré have four children and a home on the edge of Torla village in Côte d’Ivoire. He herds cattle. She grows vegetables on a small plot nearby. For years, the dry season pitted their two livelihoods against each other.
- More than 700,000 displaced people in Tawila, in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, face severe shortages of healthcare, food, water and protection, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday as it called for an urgent increase in resources.
- Kenya’s first Ebola death has triggered a race to trace everyone the victim came into contact with, as the United Nations and partners provide full support, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) top official in the country has told UN News in her first interview on the case.
- The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is robbing children of their loved ones – with some succumbing to the deadly disease themselves – the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Tuesday.
- Antibiotics, malaria treatments, painkillers, opioids. More than 250 tonnes of medical products were seized over six years in Central Africa. Behind those numbers is an illicit market that thrives not simply despite the region’s fragile health systems, but in part because of them.
- The World Food Programme (WFP) has strongly condemned a deadly airstrike on two clearly marked aid trucks in South Kordofan, Sudan, this past weekend.
- The package originated in Entebbe, Uganda, bound for Cairo, containing 10 kilograms of thumb-sized pieces that could have been either bone or elephant ivory.
- The enormous challenge of halting the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just became even harder after a key transit centre for patients requiring treatment burned down in Ituri province.
- 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.
- Representatives from across the international community are meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to ensure that children everywhere can thrive in a world marred by war, climate chaos and other fundamental challenges.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is assisting Nigeria following confirmation of the first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the country.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up emergency health response operations across Afar, Amhara and Tigray in Ethiopia to address growing humanitarian and health needs resulting from ongoing hostilities.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is strengthening Ebola preparedness amid conflict and displacement affecting millions of lives in a region that spans parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.
- Countries must accelerate efforts to prevent lead exposure, which is estimated to cause more than 3.5 million deaths globally each year and affects hundreds of millions of children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to support Kenya’s efforts to contain Ebola after a second person tested positive for the Bundibugyo virus, the UN agency’s representative in the country said on Thursday.
- Ongoing and deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine are causing serious healthcare disruption, with more than $1.5 million-worth of medicines and supplies destroyed in four separate strikes on warehouses used by the UN there since July.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for promoting, providing and protecting health in the Eastern Mediterranean region, home to some of the world’s top humanitarian crises such as Sudan, Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
- A new AI-powered hub for health professionals aims to help identify alcohol-related risks and launch discussions with patients, including the link between drinking and cancer, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday.
- The cholera epidemic continues to spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where more than 125,000 suspected cases and 3,644 suspected deaths were recorded between January 2025 and the end of September 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
- Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz is facing a “devastating” humanitarian crisis as escalating tensions are dramatically driving up food prices and causing shortages of supplies, the UN Spokesperson said on Tuesday.
- The General Assembly on Monday adopted a political declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, by 153 in favour to three against (Argentina, Israel and United States) with two abstentions (New Zealand and Paraguay).
- Kenya’s first Ebola death has triggered a race to trace everyone the victim came into contact with, as the United Nations and partners provide full support, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) top official in the country has told UN News in her first interview on the case.
- Health authorities in Russia say there is “no plague case” in Siberia following reports last week that a lab technician had died of pneumonia of an unknown origin in the region, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Wednesday.
- Child and adolescent obesity has quadrupled since 1990, rising from two per cent to around eight per cent of youngsters in the five-to-19 age group, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
- The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that significantly more resources are required to scale up its response in Yemen amid escalating conflict and rising needs.
- The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is robbing children of their loved ones – with some succumbing to the deadly disease themselves – the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Tuesday.
- The death of a lab worker in Russia’s Siberia region has sparked concerns over a possible plague case, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, adding that it was following the situation closely.
- Pregnancy and childbirth have become a “new fault line in the global climate crisis” as extreme heat worsens, the head of the UN climate action body (UNFCCC) warned on Monday, calling for maternal and newborn health to be built into countries’ climate plans.
- Amid climate disruption, an AI revolution, war and growing hunger, “the need for the United Nations has never been greater,” Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, presenting a $3.3 billion programme budget proposal for next year – a cut of $40.8 million.
- As world leaders prepare for November’s major COP31 climate summit in Türkiye, record-breaking heat, devastating floods and an unprecedented El Niño climate pattern are making global climate action ever more urgent.
- Can the UN still remain relevant if it still looks and acts like the organization it was when it was formed in 1945? The debate over UN reform at the General Assembly in New York last month produced a striking common refrain from a diverse range of Member States.
- The UN Secretary-General appealed on Tuesday for an end to the United States-Iran war and the toll it has taken on global trade, as he began an official visit to Pakistan.
- Should the world move away sharply from fossil fuels, or manage a slower, more careful retreat?
- Governments, UN entities, civil society, media, academia and the private sector have called for stronger cooperation and practical action to respond to a rapidly changing global information landscape.
- The General Assembly met on Thursday to examine the Security Council’s latest veto, cast by China and Russia over a United States-backed sanctions panel of experts on Iran nuclear facilities.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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.
- At least 139 migrants have died after their boat capsized off Djibouti, with a further 84 people still missing, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Sunday.
- The United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an institution, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowing on Friday to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick” unless it ends what Washington regards as a “threat” to its citizens.
- Antibiotics, malaria treatments, painkillers, opioids. More than 250 tonnes of medical products were seized over six years in Central Africa. Behind those numbers is an illicit market that thrives not simply despite the region’s fragile health systems, but in part because of them.
- “Your mind follows the thread, one by one, row by row. You know? It’s like meditation. I don’t like machines.”
- The package originated in Entebbe, Uganda, bound for Cairo, containing 10 kilograms of thumb-sized pieces that could have been either bone or elephant ivory.
- 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.
- Representatives from across the international community are meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to ensure that children everywhere can thrive in a world marred by war, climate chaos and other fundamental challenges.
- Three years on from the reported resumption of large-scale forcible returns of nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from China, serious concerns persist about their fate, according to a group of Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- At 14, Bushra faced being married off – until community leaders at a UNICEF-supported child protection hub worked with her father to prevent her from being given away against her will.
- More than a quarter of humanity struggles to get enough food, even though the world produces enough for everyone, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Monday, blaming injustice and the denial of human rights for hunger in a world of plenty.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine remain at record levels, with intensified Russian attacks in September continuing a pattern of harm in 2026 far exceeding previous years, UN human rights monitors in Ukraine said on Friday.
- Acute malnutrition and hunger in Afghanistan have reached the highest levels ever recorded, with 15.9 million people facing acute food insecurity and conditions set to worsen in the coming months, according to a global hunger monitor report released on Thursday.
- Brain signals recorded by a gaming headset or a wellness gadget could one day be used as evidence against you in court, according to a new UN report which warns that neurotechnology is outpacing the laws meant to protect human rights.
- UN independent experts welcomed on Wednesday a recent landmark corporate accountability ruling involving the Ecopetrol oil company by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, calling for reparations for victims.
- The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has voiced concern over reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, civil society members, lawyers and journalists, before and during large-scale protests in Delhi on Saturday.
- South African jurist and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was on Friday announced as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
- The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Friday warned that livestreaming a planned execution by firing squad in the United States would amount to a public execution and breach the absolute prohibition on torture.
- A suspected drone strike has left at least 40 dead in Sudan’s Blue Nile State – near the Ethiopian border – according to initial reports from the ground, according to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. Most of the casualties were women and girls.
- Older women around the world face violence, exploitation and neglect, yet remain largely invisible in the laws, policies, data and services designed to protect women overall, a UN independent human rights expert said on Thursday.
- The legacy of enslavement and colonialism continues to shape the lives of Africans and people of African descent, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Thursday, calling for urgent action to deliver reparatory justice beyond financial compensation.
- Afghan women and girls are being arrested, detained and threatened with arrest by Taliban authorities, the UN warned on Thursday as record numbers of returnees struggle to rebuild their lives back home.
- New data on child migrants published on Wednesday highlighted the harrowing treatment many face while travelling to Europe in search of work and shelter.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made public four arrest warrants against senior Taliban figures, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, which amounts to a crime against humanity.
- The world is running out of time to put guardrails on artificial intelligence, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned Monday, as a “ruthless race” between companies and countries raises concerns about human safety and even humanity’s survival.
- The war in Ukraine is a human rights catastrophe that is “growing and intensifying by the week” and threatening an even greater disaster across the region, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Friday.
- Talks to halt the fighting in Sudan and alleviate the humanitarian crisis there continued in Geneva on Wednesday, where nearly two dozen countries convened to discuss a pathway to a ceasefire and transition to peaceful governance that represents all Sudanese people.
- Following extreme hunger warnings, a bitter reality is unfolding across Afghanistan: food is available, but remains inaccessible for millions of people.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- Funding shortages have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to slash assistance to hungry families in the Gaza Strip by roughly one third – a move that will affect some 500,000 people as winter approaches, the UN agency announced on Monday.
- Like many people in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, Ahmed Al-Omari is preparing for another winter of bitter cold and rain that threatens to cause flooding as families struggle to survive in tattered tents and damaged buildings.
- A little over one year since a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hamas fighters and Israel, more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
- As drone strikes kill civilians from El Obeid to Blue Nile and famine risk spreads across Darfur and Kordofan, the Security Council meets on Sudan – the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Ambassadors are expected to press yet again for a ceasefire, safe aid access and an end to the weapons flows fuelling the brutal conflict.
- Intensifying fighting in Yemen has cut off life-saving assistance to 800,000 people as shifting frontlines, blocked roads and growing insecurity severely restrict access to the city of Taiz and other conflict zones, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.
- Russian attacks in recent days on on Ukraine’s two largest cities have again killed and injured civilians, damaged homes and civilian infrastructure, the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) said on Tuesday.
- The money is running out faster than needs are growing: with 117 million men, women and children now forced from their homes, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has received just $3 billion of the $8.5 billion it needs this year – and its chief, Barham Salih, warns that the global support system for asylum-seekers risks buckling.
- The United Nations has rushed to assist Nepal following new flash floods in the central Gorkha district on Sunday that swept away homes and bridges just weeks after catastrophic flooding in the north.
- The risk of famine is growing in parts of Sudan already torn apart by war, as a severe El Niño drought makes life even harder in Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, the UN-backed global hunger monitor warned on Monday.
- The Security Council met to debate Syria's thorny transition Monday as it faces pressure on several fronts. Economic hardship is fuelling unrest, Israeli incursions continue in the south and sectarian tensions persist in Sweida, even as Damascus reports progress on its chemical weapons programme and talks about future elections. Millions, meanwhile, remain displaced. Follow live below and go here for full meetings coverage.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an immediate end to the renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia, saying he is deeply worried by reports that Eritrean forces are present in the country.
- A suspected drone strike has left at least 40 dead in Sudan’s Blue Nile State – near the Ethiopian border – according to initial reports from the ground, according to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. Most of the casualties were women and girls.
- The Security Council met to discuss the crisis in Yemen Friday, where a Houthi offensive launched in September has sharply escalated the 12-year-long war for control of the country and spillover from the US-Iran war has provoked a new displacement crisis. Live coverage below and for full meetings updates, go here.
- Six weeks after Nepal’s deadly flooding disaster, communities are still struggling to rebuild their lives, but they will need sustained help as global warming increases the risk of another Himalayan catastrophe, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
- More than 700,000 displaced people in Tawila, in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, face severe shortages of healthcare, food, water and protection, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday as it called for an urgent increase in resources.
- UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Thursday he was appalled by a wave of attacks that have killed civilians across Ukraine over the past four days.
- The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine on Wednesday called for an end to attacks against civilians following further overnight strikes by Russian forces that reportedly killed at least 19 in the Chernihiv Region.
- “I tell my kids I work in a time machine,” said Rhony Dostaly. In a basement beneath Lincoln Center, the media preservation engineer rescues moments from the past. “I go back in time, and I grab elements, and I make them available for people today.”
- For a long time, launching something beyond Earth was reserved for a relatively small number of national space programmes. That is changing.
- Right after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, UNOOSA, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, was established and has since been monitoring developments across more than 77 successful lunar missions and other journeys while also taking a lead role in the annual World Space Week, which runs from 4 to 10 October.
- 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).
- Rapid transformations – from artificial intelligence and digital technologies to renewable energy and demographic shifts – are reshaping economies worldwide, creating new opportunities but also threatening to deepen socio-economic inequalities, a new UN report warned on Thursday.
- $228 billion is a staggering amount of money to find, but that’s exactly what communities around the world are faced with every year, to rebuild housing after disaster strikes.
- Approximately 800 million young people entering the labour market in developing economies over the coming years will not find jobs unless countries act, the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) warned on Tuesday, as the agency launched two initiatives to boost investment and employment.
- Nidaa, Hanaa and Hanin have different stories, but share a common thread: the determination to build something of their own and keep it going despite extraordinary challenges facing them in war-ravaged Gaza.
- World trade reached a record $35 trillion in 2025 – but developing countries were held back from greater participation in the global economy because of new technological and policy barriers, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said on Friday.
- People around the world are living longer again, with global life expectancy almost fully recovered from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
- The deadly flash floods in northern Nepal have severely disrupted employment and livelihoods, with wider impacts beyond communities that were directly affected, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a preliminary assessment released on Thursday.
- 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.
- Older women around the world face violence, exploitation and neglect, yet remain largely invisible in the laws, policies, data and services designed to protect women overall, a UN independent human rights expert said on Thursday.
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made public four arrest warrants against senior Taliban figures, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, which amounts to a crime against humanity.
- Women must be at the centre of efforts to prevent conflict and build lasting peace, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Thursday.
- 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.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up emergency health response operations across Afar, Amhara and Tigray in Ethiopia to address growing humanitarian and health needs resulting from ongoing hostilities.
- Talks to halt the fighting in Sudan and alleviate the humanitarian crisis there continued in Geneva on Wednesday, where nearly two dozen countries convened to discuss a pathway to a ceasefire and transition to peaceful governance that represents all Sudanese people.
- Representatives from across the international community are meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to ensure that children everywhere can thrive in a world marred by war, climate chaos and other fundamental challenges.
- The use of live ammunition, arson and the destruction of centuries-old olive trees have marked the opening weeks of this year’s harvest in the occupied West Bank.
- More than 250,000 people have now fled renewed fighting in Yemen, the UN said on Tuesday, citing particular concern for those sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.
- The UN warned on Tuesday against a premature withdrawal of its peacekeepers as the war in Sudan spills over into the Central African Republic (CAR).
- Artificial intelligence is already being widely used on the battlefield, and the role of human judgment in military operations is shrinking rapidly, the head of the UN’s independent disarmament research institute warned on Tuesday.
- Funding shortages have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to slash assistance to hungry families in the Gaza Strip by roughly one third – a move that will affect some 500,000 people as winter approaches, the UN agency announced on Monday.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres paid tribute to Indonesian peacekeepers on Monday, laying a wreath in honour of four who recently lost their lives in Lebanon and offering a robust defence of UN peacekeeping in what he called “testing times for peace”.
- Israeli attacks on war-torn Gaza over the weekend killed at least six Palestinians, including children, despite a year-old ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settler violence continued through the ongoing olive harvest, with UN independent experts on Monday urging Israel to protect Palestinian farmers.
- Armed groups in Haiti are adapting to intensified security operations, stepping up reprisals against civilians and extending their reach into rural areas, the UN warned the Security Council on Monday.
- Drone strikes killed and injured dozens across Sudan on Monday as the ongoing war continues to cause soaring displacement and hunger.
- A little over one year since a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hamas fighters and Israel, more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
- As drone strikes kill civilians from El Obeid to Blue Nile and famine risk spreads across Darfur and Kordofan, the Security Council meets on Sudan – the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Ambassadors are expected to press yet again for a ceasefire, safe aid access and an end to the weapons flows fuelling the brutal conflict.
- Civilian casualties in Ukraine remain at record levels, with intensified Russian attacks in September continuing a pattern of harm in 2026 far exceeding previous years, UN human rights monitors in Ukraine said on Friday.
- Amid a rise in lethal Israeli strikes, demolitions and violence in Gaza and the West Bank, the Security Council held an open debate on Thursday focusing on the current situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
- Ongoing and deadly Russian attacks across Ukraine are causing serious healthcare disruption, with more than $1.5 million-worth of medicines and supplies destroyed in four separate strikes on warehouses used by the UN there since July.
- Despite progress in the political process in Libya, institutional divisions, economic deterioration and security fragility continue to threaten stability, the UN envoy warned the Security Council on Wednesday, calling on Libyan leaders to overcome their differences to pave the way for national elections.
- The UN and its partners are stepping up preparations in Gaza for the approaching cold and rainy season, even as attacks affecting civilians continue, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday.
- Haiti is living through one of the world’s most acute security crises. Armed gangs control large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and are pushing into rural areas, terrorising communities, killing people, committing rape and other sexual assaults, kidnapping for ransom and extorting individuals and businesses.
- The price tag for smuggling on European sea routes reached up to half a billion dollars last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN migration office, IOM, reported on Wednesday.
- Fewer people from West Africa are reaching Europe by sea, but the journey has not become safer, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Tuesday.
- The money is running out faster than needs are growing: with 117 million men, women and children now forced from their homes, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has received just $3 billion of the $8.5 billion it needs this year – and its chief, Barham Salih, warns that the global support system for asylum-seekers risks buckling.
- At least 139 migrants have died after their boat capsized off Djibouti, with a further 84 people still missing, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Sunday.
- New data on child migrants published on Wednesday highlighted the harrowing treatment many face while travelling to Europe in search of work and shelter.
- Djibouti is facing “overlapping emergencies” as refugees fleeing the conflict in Yemen arrive on its shores while migrants continue to travel in the opposite direction, the UN migration agency (IOM) warned on Tuesday.
- A teenage girl who fled war-torn Sudan for neighbouring Egypt and hopes to pursue a technology degree is an example of why countries must ensure that young refugees can continue to learn.
- 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?
- Biodiversity losses continue to upend the lives of billions of people whose future prosperity depends on countries taking urgent action to protect our planet, the top UN official leading talks at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, said on Monday.
- The UN Secretary-General has called for an end to the “war on nature”. On Monday, governments gathering in Yerevan, Armenia, will have to confront a more practical question: are they doing enough to win the peace and put the world’s biodiversity goals back on track?
- The United Nations Secretary-General appealed on Friday for governments, businesses and communities to accelerate efforts to protect biodiversity for future generations and all life on Earth.
- Fewer than half of the national targets set to protect the world’s plants, animals and ecosystems are on track, the UN warns in a new report, days before countries gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the COP17 biodiversity conference.
- The UN and its partners are stepping up preparations in Gaza for the approaching cold and rainy season, even as attacks affecting civilians continue, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday.
- The UN Special Representative on Violence Against Children has called for stronger global action to protect boys and girls caught up in a growing number of crises, as current efforts fall short.
- The number of people living in “multidimensional” poverty has risen for the first time in 15 years, reaching 1.2 billion, as families struggle to meet their basic needs.
- Adam Ouattara and Makongo Traoré have four children and a home on the edge of Torla village in Côte d’Ivoire. He herds cattle. She grows vegetables on a small plot nearby. For years, the dry season pitted their two livelihoods against each other.
- Years of conflict, displacement, economic disruption and climate shocks in Myanmar have led to the “simultaneous collapse” of shelter, healthcare, schooling and livelihoods affecting millions of people, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a report issued on Thursday.
- Representatives from governments, civil society and academia meeting in Muscat, Oman on Monday called for urgent action to address a global housing crisis affecting nearly 3.4 billion people.
- 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.
