This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.  

UN chief calls for solidarity with people of Syria, with no time to spare 

“The suffering of Syrians defies description.” 

That’s what UN chief António Guterres told donors gathered in Brussels at an international pledging conference for Syria organized by the European Union on Thursday. 

Mr. Guterres said that the UN was asking for $11.1 billion dollars – its largest appeal worldwide – to support Syrians inside the country and those displaced in the broader region. 

Only about a tenth of the necessary funding for 2023 has been secured so far and needs are sky-high, after a devastating earthquake in February compounded suffering brought on by more than a decade of war.  

Nearly the entire population of the country lives below the poverty line. Mr. Guterres warned that there was “no time to spare”, as aid will run out for 2.5 million Syrians next month, for lack of financing. 

Mr. Guterres also reiterated his call for a sustainable political solution to the conflict that would involve all Syrians. 

In a joint statement to the conference, Filippo Grandi, the UN refugee chief, Martin Griffiths, head of the UN aid coordination office, and Achim Steiner who leads the UN Development Programme, underscored the generosity of host countries in the region – Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Türkiye – in supporting Syrian refugees.  

They called for increased international solidarity with those countries as they find themselves “reeling from global economic pressures”.  

Sudan: Displaced people victims of Darfur violence 

Violent clashes in and around camps for displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur have killed over 100 people, the UN refugee agency chief, Filippo Grandi, tweeted on Thursday. 

Mr. Grandi also described as “shocking” the reports of sexual violence against women and girls there. He warned that this will worsen unless the warring generals agree to end “a fight that is destroying Sudan”. 

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and rival military group the Rapid Support Forces has left thousands dead or injured since 15 April and displaced some two million people. 

Earlier this week, the UN Special Representative for Sudan Volker Perthes said that in West Darfur’s capital El Geneina, there was an emerging pattern of “large-scale targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnic identities, allegedly committed by Arab militias and some armed men in Rapid Support Forces uniform”.  

If verified, these attacks could amount to crimes against humanity, he added. 

UN rights chief hails European AI regulation push 

UN human rights chief Volker Türk has welcomed a European Parliament vote to address the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI). 

On Wednesday, European legislators passed a draft law known as the AI Act, aiming to regulate certain uses of the technology. Mr. Türk hailed the move as a “key first step” to prevent AI-enabled human rights abuses by banning “real-time remote biometric recognition, predictive policing and emotion recognition”.  

The draft law still needs to go through an adoption process involving other European Union bodies before a final agreement is reached later this year.  

AI risks have been at the top of the UN’s agenda this week. On Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters that the alarm bells over the technology were “deafening” as he announced his intention to create a high-level advisory body on AI. He also expressed support for a specialized agency on the issue, similar to the UN’s nuclear safety watchdog IAEA.  

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.