Interviews

Criminal networks in Southeast Asia are growing their illegal operations in through the innovative use of technology, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The trafficking of people and drugs as well as money laundering and fraudulent scam activities are being boosted by the use of cryptocurrencies, the dark web, artificial intelligence and social media platforms, as criminals continue to base their operations in parts of the region where the rule of law is weak or non-existent. 

According to energy industry experts, we’re in the middle of a massive expansion of renewable energy sources, and it’s likely to continue. At the UN climate conference in Dubai at the end of last year, governments committed to tripling global capacity by 2030, and the International Energy Agency, for one, is bullish about that goal being achieved.

But will developing countries benefit? 

No food, water, or health care facilities, no communication with the outside world, and the constant threat of bombardments.

These are the desperate conditions under which Gazans are living, says Juliette Touma, the spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, who visited Gaza in mid-January.

On her return, she spoke to Conor Lennon from UN News, and described what she saw in the congested refugee camps of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Emirati Hospital in southern Gaza is one of last functioning maternity facilities in all of Gaza where “there aren’t enough staff and not enough medicine” for women about to give birth, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.

Amid ongoing active conflict that has killed tens of thousands, UNICEF is doing its utmost to help, by delivering essential relief supplies to health teams, formula milk, clothes and food for women too weak to breastfeed. 

Nine months ago, UN teams in Sudan were forced to evacuate from their headquarters in Khartoum, as heavy fighting between government and rebel forces raged in the capital.

The impact on the civilian population has been catastrophic, with half of the population in need of aid and more than seven million people forced to flee their homes. The security situation is so bad that humanitarian workers have been unable to bring aid to the areas worst hit by fighting.

With only ‘one door’ open on Gaza’s southern border at Rafah, for aid to reach more than two million Gazans who need lifesaving aid, Israel must provide greater and more reasonable access, said the veteran humanitarian official who is the interim Resident Coordinator for the enclave, in an exclusive interview with UN News.

Houthi rebel attacks on ships using the Red Sea trade route off the coast of Yemen, are bad for global business and consumers everywhere but have also exposed a chronic shortage of vessels in the supply chain.

That’s according to Jan Hoffman, chief of the trade logistics branch at the UN trade and development body UNCTAD.

The enormous potential of GPT4 caught the popular imagination in 2023, with its ability to generate texts in a range of styles, in response to written prompts.

But many expressed concern about the jobs that might be lost, the ease with which bad actors could produce highly convincing misinformation and, in a coming year full of elections, the risks AI could pose to democracy itself.