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Stepping up efforts to broker a ceasefire in Syria, the United Nations Special Envoy for the country, Staffan de Mistura, is briefing various opposition groups on latest international efforts to end a five-year conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and driven millions from their homes.

From parades to soccer matches, school debates, and the lighting up of hundreds of iconic monuments, starting tomorrow a United Nations call to “Orange the World” will galvanize global action calling for an end to violence against women and girls, which according to the UN’s agency for gender equality (UN Women) affects one in three worldwide.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is seriously concerned over the downing of a Russian military jet by the Turkish Air Force earlier today, and has urged all relevant parties to take urgent measures with a view to de-escalating tensions, according to his spokesperson.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Balkan States today that border restrictions based on a refugee’s or migrant’s nationality infringed human rights, with the United Nations refugee agency reporting that 1,000 people are already stranded, 60 of them on hunger strike and 11 reportedly stitching up their mouths in protest.

Citing “extraordinary” progress in HIV prevention and response in the last 15 years, a new United Nations report found that many countries are adopting the Fast-Track Strategy developed by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which allows more people to receive timely treatment for HIV, in an effort to end AIDS by 2030, as part of the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals.

Some 21.2 million people in Yemen – or 82 per cent of the population – require some kind of assistance to meet their basic needs, according to a recently-published overview of the country’s humanitarian needs for the next year carried out by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

More than half a billion children live in areas with extremely high flood occurrence and 160 million in high drought severity zones, leaving them highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a report released ahead of the 21st United Nations climate change conference, known as COP21.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council this evening condemned the attack today in Tunis against a bus carrying Presidential Guards, which resulted in many deaths and injuries.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Michael Keating of the United Kingdom as his new Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).

The floods caused by recent heavy rainfalls in South Central Somalia have led to an interruption of humanitarian aid delivery, an escalation of local commodity prices, and an epidemic in water-borne diseases, the United Nations relief wing has warned in the latest situation update on the country.