• 100,000 children in Tigray at risk of death from malnutrition: UNICEF
• Mercenaries must leave Libya to pave way for peace, elections – UN experts
• Rights expert urges governments to crack down on hate speech and crimes targeting Roma

Six months since the military coup in Myanmar, the UN and partners are doing their utmost to help protect the country’s people and show solidarity with their plight, amid mass displacement linked to deadly clashes with Government forces and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. 

That’s the message from the organisation’s top acting humanitarian coordinator in the country, Ramanathan Balakrishnan, who’s been speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson. 

In this week’s show, a global deal to help get rid of plastic waste that’s been signed by 180 countries; a call for a “COVID ceasefire” in Myanmar, how more efficient food production could help solve a global hunger crisis and positive coronavirus vaccine developments in Africa.

• More action against human trafficking needed urgently: UN chief Guterres
• Beirut: One year after blast, UNESCO echoes solidarity call
• COVID-19 vaccine shipments boost for Africa, WHO announces

– COVID-19 infections rise 8 per cent in a week, Delta variant now in 132 countries
– Myanmar: Rights expert calls for ‘COVID ceasefire’, urges UN action 
– Cornerstone treaty of refugee protection turns 70 

Latest data this week from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, reflects the highest civilian casualty numbers over any two-month period since records began in 2009.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, UNAMA’s head of human rights, Fiona Frazer, insists that what ordinary Afghans want is peace, amid an ongoing assault by Taliban and other non-State armed groups.

• Rising concern over plight of Eritrean refugees in Tigray camps: UNHCR
• IOM: Dozens missing in #Libya shipwreck
• 600 million children not in school because of COVID-19, reports UNICEF

• Rome UN Food Summit action call
• Nearly 200 nations start climate science negotiations online
• More women and children killed and wounded in Afghan conflict than ever

• Fears of famine persist in Ethiopia’s stricken Tigray region
• Thailand: Heritage status row over Kaeng Krachan national park
• Tokyo Olympians’ message of hope for world’s displaced

In today’s show, solutions to child labour in Cambodia where one teenager has a dream; over in Tokyo, UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wishes the Olympic Games well but reminds us COVID-19 is racing ahead, particularly in Africa; also in the news, the High Commissioner for Human Rights issues an alert about the apparently widespread use of spy software.