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The Lid is On

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

PODCAST: Rebuilding lives after terror in Cameroon

A group of survivors devastated by terrorism in the Lake Chad region of Africa, are taking small steps towards building new lives and livelihoods.

In Cameroon alone, there are some 250,000 internally displaced people and around 100,000 refugees, forced to flee their homes due to a brutal insurgency which was originally led by Boko Haram – it’s now splintered into a number of different extremist Islamist armed groups.

Audio
22'36"
UN News/Ben Lybrand

Lid is On Podcast Special: UN chief lays out #UNGA hopes and challenges

What are the UN’s top priorities, and can countries make more progress towards lasting peace, prosperity, and essential climate action?

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the nations that make up the 74th General Assembly to provide “concrete answers” to the big challenges of our time.

In this exclusive UN News interview, Melissa Fleming, new head of Global Communications here at the UN, talks to António Guterres for our Lid Is On podcast, about the power of effective international cooperation, on the road to 2030.

Audio
11'54"
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Podcast: Terrorism survivors of Lake Chad recount harrowing stories

Survivors of terrorist atrocities in the Lake Chad region of Africa have been telling UN News about how they have been able to overcome the horror of kidnapping and being forced to watch their own close family members being executed.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and many thousands killed across the region over the past decade or so, as a result of a terrorist insurgency which continues to this day.

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20'36"
UN Publications/Steven Bornholtz

The UN is almost 75: Does it have the support it needs to survive?

Who wants the death of the UN?

This provocative question is the title – translated into English from Qui veut la mort de l’ONU?  in French – of a new book by Romuald Sciora and Anne-Cécile Robert, two French journalists and experts in international affairs.

In it, they argue that the United Nations is often unfairly held responsible for a lot of the ailments of the world: war, famine, health and environmental crises…

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16'17"
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

The Baldwins talk healthy eating, and a healthy planet

We have been “absolutely shameful stewards” of the environment, according to Academy Award-nominated actor and activist Alec Baldwin, who stopped by our UN News studio with his wife Hilaria after they spoke at the launch of a new UN-backed report that links food and health with a sustainable planet.

While bantering amicably, the couple shared their ardent belief that it is important to eat healthily – for themselves, their budding family and Mother Earth itself.

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17'8"
UN video

PODCAST: ‘Willing to die for the truth’ - lessons of hidden Jewish archive live on today

The story of how a group of around 60 Jews imprisoned by the Nazi regime in the Warsaw Ghetto secretly worked on archiving their rich history in wartime Poland, has powerful resonances today, as journalists continue to be killed simply for telling the truth.

That’s the view of writer-director-producer Roberta Grossman, and executive producer, Nancy Spielberg – sister of legendary Hollywood director Stephen Spielberg – whose new film “Who Will Write Our History” was screened recently at UN Headquarters.

Audio
23'39"
UN News/Lulu Gao

PODCAST: How to beat the opioid epidemic

Opioids account for over three-quarters of deaths associated with prescription drug misuse. In late January, David Sheff and Vicky Cornell joined a panel discussion on addiction organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Mr. Sheff’s memoir about his son’s addiction has been turned into a major Hollywood movie, and Ms. Cornell was married to Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, whose suicide she has attributed to prescription drugs that altered his mental state.

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22'2"