Civilians and aid operations under fire as Sudan airstrikes intensify

Civilians and aid operations under fire as Sudan airstrikes intensify

Two children were reportedly killed and 13 others injured in a drone strike on a mosque in Al-Rahad, North Kordofan, where all the victims were students at the adjoining school. The attack came just hours after a primary school in Dilling, South Kordofan, was hit, with further injuries reported.  WFP warehouse hit  The warehouse of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in the […]

Ukraine: UN aid convoy reaches frontlines in Dnipro

Ukraine: UN aid convoy reaches frontlines in Dnipro

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that access to the town had been “extremely difficult due to the continued fighting.” Of the 10,000 people who lived there before the full-scale invasion in February 2022, only about 500 remain, “most of them older people and people with disabilities.” According to Ukrainian authorities, hostilities between Tuesday and […]

World News in Brief: School shooting in Canada, cholera outbreak in DR Congo, evacuations in Gaza

World News in Brief: School shooting in Canada, cholera outbreak in DR Congo, evacuations in Gaza

António Guterres was “saddened to learn of the tragic shooting in Tumble Ridge, British Columbia,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at the daily news briefing. “[Mr. Guterres] extends his deepest condolences to those affected and his sympathies to the Government and people of Canada,” Mr. Dujarric added. Two crime scenes According to media reports, the […]

UN social policy commission closes with calls to turn pledges into action

UN social policy commission closes with calls to turn pledges into action

Meeting at UN Headquarters, in New York, from 2 to 10 February, the Commission for Social Development marked its first session since the Second World Summit for Social Development, held in Doha last year. The gathering brought together ministers, senior UN officials, civil society groups and youth representatives to examine how global pledges can be […]

Women and girls in science: Dismantling barriers, closing gender gaps

Women and girls in science: Dismantling barriers, closing gender gaps

Across the world, a significant gender gap persists at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines due to lack of research funding, gender stereotypes, and discriminatory workplace practices.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the gap is particularly pronounced in technology, where women represent just 26 per cent of the workforce in data and artificial intelligence, and 12 per cent in cloud computing.   “Excluding women […]

UN warns civilians remain at risk as airstrikes continue across Gaza

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular news briefing in New York that the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, had received additional reports of airstrikes, bombing, shelling – including from at sea – and shootings in residential areas. The violence, he said, “puts civilians in danger and adds to the immense hardship they […]

In Bahrain; work, dignity and the quiet rise of home-grown enterprise

In Bahrain; work, dignity and the quiet rise of home-grown enterprise

Their experiences underline a broader message: inclusive economic growth depends on opening space for those too often excluded, including people with disabilities, youth and home-based innovators. Entrepreneur by necessity For Shaymaa Saeed, a young Egyptian crochet designer and handicrafts artist with a disability, entrepreneurship was not a lifestyle choice but a necessity. Health challenges prevented […]

Violence surges in South Sudan leaving civilians at risk and peacekeepers stretched thin

Violence surges in South Sudan leaving civilians at risk and peacekeepers stretched thin

Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council on Tuesday, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said instability had risen sharply in recent weeks, driven by political deadlock among signatories to the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement and a dangerous escalation in armed confrontations. Fighting has intensified most dramatically in Jonglei state, where clashes between Government forces and opposition […]

Fresh report warns fish fraud extends to one fifth of global catch

Fresh report warns fish fraud extends to one fifth of global catch

While there is no official estimate of how prevalent fraud is in the $195 billion global fisheries and aquaculture sector, empirical studies suggest that 20 per cent of the trade may be subject to some type of fraud, according to FAO. Menu of misinformation Some studies suggest that up to 30 per cent of seafood […]

General Assembly President urges Europeans to ‘stand up’ for the UN

General Assembly President urges Europeans to ‘stand up’ for the UN

In a key address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Annalena Baerbock repeated her call to uphold multilateralism amid “trying times” globally.  She noted that just 40 days into 2026, the world has already seen crises around Venezuela, Iran and Greenland, on top of continuing devastation in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. International order ‘under attack’  “The international order is not only under pressure, it is under attack,” she told lawmakers.   “And […]

In Sudan, sick and starving children ‘wasting away’

In Sudan, sick and starving children ‘wasting away’

As heavy fighting continues between former allies the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allies, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that in parts of North Darfur more than half of all children are acutely malnourished. The warning follows the release of new data from the IPC, a UN-backed global food […]

Ethiopia: Türk fears new crisis in Tigray amid renewed fighting

Ethiopia: Türk fears new crisis in Tigray amid renewed fighting

“The situation remains highly volatile and we fear it will further deteriorate, worsening the region’s already precarious human rights and humanitarian situation,” Mr. Türk said, following clashes in recent days between the Ethiopian army and regional forces. The development comes against a backdrop of deadly conflict in Tigray from 2020 to 2022 between Government troops and […]

Proposed amnesty law offers political prisoners in Venezuela an ‘opportunity’

Proposed amnesty law offers political prisoners in Venezuela an ‘opportunity’

The amnesty is aimed at promoting peace, democratic coexistence and national reconciliation as the South American country enters a new era following the seizure of former President Nicolas Maduro by the United States.  It passed unanimously on 5 February by Venezuelan legislators in the first of two readings. The amnesty “offers an opportunity to provide […]

World News in Brief: Floods in Syria, relief operations in Cuba at risk, ending child labour

World News in Brief: Floods in Syria, relief operations in Cuba at risk, ending child labour

According to the relief coordination office, OCHA, rainfall since Saturday caused widespread flooding across parts of Idleb and northern Latakia, damaging around 1,800 tents and destroying at least 150 in camps housing displaced families. A local hospital was also forced to suspend operations, with patients having been evacuated and mobile medical teams deployed. Authorities have […]

West Bank: New Israeli measures further erode prospects for two-State solution

West Bank: New Israeli measures further erode prospects for two-State solution

The measures would make it easier for Jewish settlers to take over Palestinian land, thus expanding Israel’s power in the territory, according to media reports.  The UN chief warned that the current trajectory on the ground – including this decision – is eroding the prospect for the two-State solution, according to a statement issued by his Spokesperson.  Settlements are illegal  He reiterated that all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, […]

DR Congo: UN vows orderly peacekeeping transition as South Africa withdraws troops

DR Congo: UN vows orderly peacekeeping transition as South Africa withdraws troops

In a statement issued on Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said he informed UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 12 January about the decision, which “is influenced by the need to consolidate and realign the resources of the South African National Defence Force, following 27 years of South Africa’s support to UN peacekeeping efforts in the DRC.”  He noted that South Africa is among the top 10 countries contributing troops to […]

UN calls for release of Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai following 20-year sentence

UN calls for release of Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai following 20-year sentence

High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk deplored the sentence imposed on Mr. Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, following his conviction on charges brought under security-related laws in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. On 15 December 2025, the High Court found Mr. Lai guilty of conspiracy […]

53 migrants die in latest shipwreck tragedy off Libya coast

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the boat overturned in the perishingly cold waters of the central Mediterranean Sea, north of the coastal town of Zuwara last Friday.  It is just the latest deadly incident involving vulnerable people on the move who are frequently mistreated and trafficked by smuggling gangs that have flourished […]