“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 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…
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…
Sudan’s Foreign Minister addressed the UN General Assembly on Monday in place of de facto head of state General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, whose visa application was rejected by Washington.
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…
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.
Countries adopted on Saturday a new global blueprint for tackling rapidly evolving forms of crime on Saturday, as the UN’s largest gathering on crime prevention and criminal justice opened in Abu Dhabi with a call for stronger international cooperation.
As the high-level debate enters a fourth day, The Takeaway looks back at key highlights on Thursday, with Israeli and Palestinian leaders presenting divergent views on the Middle East conflict and their counterparts from across the world weighing in on the far-reaching impacts…
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.
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…
Sea level rise is among the most visible consequences of global warming, but for some countries, it is an imminent existential threat. World leaders meet Thursday to adopt a new declaration and debate the best ways to strengthen international cooperation and support vulnerable…
This edition of UN News's The Takeaway recaps key highlghts at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, including focus on the war in Ukraine and a renewed push by African countries for Security Council reform.
Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that his country “is rising” on many levels, thanks to the strength of its people.
“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…
Rising sea levels and ever-more-powerful storms are eroding shorelines, submerging land and threatening to evict millions of people from their homes worldwide.
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.
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…
The United Nations continues to be weakened, and those who have tied their hopes to the world body – from Palestine to Sudan – have been disappointed, Türkiye’s President said, while adding that his country is committed to restoring confidence in the Organization.
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.
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.
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.
UN peacekeepers have increasingly been sent into places where there is no peace to keep – under resourced, outgunned and exposed to violence they are not equipped to counter. The Security Council meets this afternoon in New York to confront that problem, with Secretary-General…
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 world is entering a period in which abnormal water supplies are becoming the norm, with river flows, groundwater and glaciers all showing signs of sustained disruption, the UN weather agency warned on Thursday.
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.
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.
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.
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).
The Security Council meets top of the hour 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.…
The head of the UN's climate body has warned that treating global warming as a partisan issue is dangerously out of step with reality, as he set out a stark account of the economic toll climate change is already inflicting on Europe.
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.
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.
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.
At the end of a history-laden path winding through palm trees and scattered ruins – remnants of once-vibrant villages destroyed by cattle raids – lies a rare sight in this dry part of Terekeka county in South Sudan: a sparkling, fresh water source.
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.
Foreign recruitment and external support networks are fuelling the brutal conflict in Sudan, independent UN human rights investigators said on Thursday in a new report, calling for accountability as fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary…
Following Zambia’s contested presidential and parliamentary elections almost three weeks ago, the crackdown on political opposition has intensified, raising concerns about the future of democracy in the country, according to a UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert.
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…
Damaged roads, disrupted services and ongoing military activity continue to put civilians at risk in south Lebanon as strikes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah continue, according to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the country (UNIFIL).
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.
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.
Countries are spending too little to restore degraded land even as the economic cost of doing nothing climbs towards $1 trillion a year, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warned at a major UN land conference in Mongolia.
Members of the minority ethnic Rohingya Muslim group in Myanmar are “suffering, misery, and cruelty on multiple levels and across the country that is heartbreaking,” according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
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…
The UN has launched a new initiative to protect victims of terrorist attacks from online harm and re-traumatisation, drawing on harrowing survivor accounts, from the Nova Music Festival in Israel to an attack on a FIFA World Cup final viewing party in Uganda.
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.
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 Security Council is meeting on Libya Tuesday as the country faces a political impasse delaying long-planned elections alongside heatwaves, tensions and violence, including drone strikes last week that left a major oil refinery ablaze. UN News app users can follow here.
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.”
The Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is now the deadliest the country has ever faced, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
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.
Humanitarians continue to provide life-saving assistance to people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite facing obstacles such as checkpoints, instability and access restrictions, the United Nations said on Friday.
Across the world, healthcare has suffered more than 10,000 attacks in the past eight years, including during the brutal conflict in Ukraine and efforts to contain the current Ebola outbreak spreading rapidly in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are tracking a growing share of people exposed to Ebola, but the epidemic in the country's restive east continues to outpace their ability to find and isolate the sick, the World Health Organization (WHO) has…
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.