Latest News

A wildfire burns in a national park in Oregon, USA.
Unsplash/Marcus Kauffman

IPCC report: ‘Code red’ for human driven global heating, warns UN chief

9 August 2021
Climate and Environment

Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and some trends are now irreversible, at least during the present time frame, according to the latest much-anticipated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released on Monday.

The Hypocenter Monument at Nagasaki Peace Park, Japan.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN pledges full support to Nagasaki voices fuelling ‘powerful global movement’ against nuclear arms

8 August 2021
Peace and Security

António Guterres has reaffirmed the full support of the United Nations to amplifying the powerful testimony of the survivors of the atomic bomb that was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, 76 years ago, which has helped build a “powerful global movement against nuclear arms”.

The number of women working in STEM fields is growing.
Unsplash/wocintechchat

For women in e-commerce, ‘entrepreneurship means freedom’

8 August 2021
Women

Entrepreneurship can mean more freedom for women according to the first Latin-American advocate of eTrade for All, an initiative developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to expand and promote the digital economy, especially in low and middle-income countries.

Flora Hadjigeorgiou (left) and Hande Toycan are using their love of weaving to bridge the divide in Cyprus.
UN News video

Cyprus communities weaving closer ties through UN-backed project

6 August 2021
Peace and Security

A weaving project is helping to close the decades-long divide between the two communities in Cyprus, with assistance from the UN mission in the country, UNFICYP. 

UNIFIL peacekeeper on patrol in south Lebanon. (File)
UN/Haidar Fahs

Escalating Lebanon-Israel aggressions provoking ‘very dangerous situation’

6 August 2021
Peace and Security

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said on Friday that escalating hostilities over the past two days involving Lebanese and Israeli forces have created “a very dangerous situation” in the volatile border region.

People displaced by insecurity in Afghanistan shelter at a Camp in western Herat province.
IOM/Muse Mohammed

Afghanistan at ‘dangerous turning point’, UN envoy warns Security Council

6 August 2021
Peace and Security

With the war in Afghanistan now in “a new, deadlier, and more destructive phase”, the top UN official in the country appealed on Friday for the Security Council to act to avert a catastrophe. 

A family from Samre, in southwestern Tigray, walked for two days to reach a camp for displaced people in Mekelle.
UNOCHA/Saviano Abreu

Ceasefire in Tigray more urgent than ever: UN relief chief

6 August 2021
Peace and Security

A ceasefire in Tigray on humanitarian grounds is needed now more than ever if a massive aid operation across frontlines is to succeed, the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Friday.

The security situation in Mali has deteriorated to the extent that the 'very survival of the state' is threatened.
MINUSMA/Harandane Dicko

Mali violence threatens country’s survival, warns UN human rights expert

6 August 2021
Human Rights


Rapidly spreading violence in Mali is threatening the State’s very survival, the UN independent expert on the human rights situation in the country said on Friday. 

COVID-19 test kits arrive at Yangon airport in Myanmar in June 2020.
© UNICEF/Nyan Zay Htet

Myanmar: COVID-19 third wave has hit like a ‘tsunami’, warns WFP

6 August 2021
Humanitarian Aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that it is facing a 70 per cent funding shortfall in Myanmar, where millions face growing food insecurity.

A young boy walks along the Spin Boldak-Chaman border of Afghanistan and Pakistan in February 2021.
IOM/Muse Mohammed

Displaced Afghans face ‘continued deterioration’ in country

6 August 2021
Peace and Security

The situation for people who have been displaced due to an upsurge in fighting in Afghanistan following the resurgence of the Taliban is expected to continue to deteriorate, unless more is done to assist them, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).