UN Secretary-General's opening remarks at #UNGA press conference, on 16 September 2020

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The number of plants and animals on the planet that are at risk today would be far higher without globally agreed safeguards and action to protect them - but it still far from good enough - UN biodiversity experts said on Tuesday. 

In a call for far greater commitment from all nations to safeguard human wellbeing and the planet’s, the body that oversees this work – the Convention on Biodiversity urged all those gathering for a UN Summit at the end of the month to broaden their ambition. 

From the Convention, here’s Executive Secretary Elizabeth Mrema and Deputy Executive Secretary David Cooper, talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson. 

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Although COVID-19 continues to dominate the headlines, a host of other global challenges have not gone away, such as conflict, famine and the existential threat posed by climate change.

In this edition of our Lid is On podcast, UN News’s May Yaacoub spoke to UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, to find out what his priorities are for the event.

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All parties to the conflict in Yemen - and the humanitarian catastrophe that it has created – are responsible for terrible crimes which should be investigated by an international criminal probe.

That's the message from rights investigator Melissa Parke, member of a Human Rights Council panel, who recently spoke to UN News’s Daniel Johnson about the findings of its latest report. 

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Keeping COVID-19 infections at bay among Palestinian refugees has never been so important at the start of this new academic year, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has said. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, agency spokesperson Tamara Alrifai explains how the agency has put changes in place to keep the 5.6 million people it helps safe in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank - including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. 

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