No green without blue: Young ocean explorers set sail for a sustainable future

No green without blue: Young ocean explorers set sail for a sustainable future

In the old town of Nice, the 98-meter-long, three-masted barque arrived last week at Port Lympia, where UNOC3 is now under way. Built in 1914 and owned by Norway since 1921, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl – named for former Norwegian minister Kristofer Lehmkuhl – was refitted last year with state-of-the-art ocean science instruments, transforming it into […]

Central Africa at a crossroads amid rising tensions and instability

Central Africa at a crossroads amid rising tensions and instability

With violence worsening in both the Lake Chad Basin and the Great Lakes, the Security Council met on Monday to examine the threats confronting the wider region. “Central Africa remains rich in potential, but the challenges are still significant,” said Abdou Abarry, Head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA). Some progress While […]

Guterres calls for an end to ocean ‘plunder’ as UN summit opens in France

Guterres calls for an end to ocean ‘plunder’ as UN summit opens in France

“The ocean is the ultimate shared resource,” he told delegates gathered at the port of Nice. “But we are failing it.” Oceans, he warned, are absorbing 90 per cent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and buckling under the strain: overfishing, rising temperatures, plastic pollution, acidification. Coral reefs are dying. Fish stocks are […]

Drifting architects: Plankton, climate, and the race to understand our changing ocean

Drifting architects: Plankton, climate, and the race to understand our changing ocean

On a sun-drenched morning off the coast of Villefranche-sur-Mer, the Sagitta III cuts through the cobalt waters of the Mediterranean, past the quiet marinas and pine-fringed terraces of France’s Côte d’Azur. The 40-foot scientific vessel – named after a fearsome zooplankton with hook-lined jaws – rumbles toward a lonely yellow buoy bobbing offshore. In the […]

Gaza: Women and girls struggle to manage their periods amid crisis

Gaza: Women and girls struggle to manage their periods amid crisis

Globally, 1.8 billion people menstruate, yet for many, especially in crises zones, it’s far more than an inconvenience. In war-torn Gaza, around 700,000 women and girls of menstruating age, including thousands experiencing their first period, face this challenge under relentless bombardment and in cramped, unsanitary conditions with little privacy. A human rights issue The United Nations’ sexual […]

Stigmatised for being deaf: Zénabou’s Story

Stigmatised for being deaf: Zénabou’s Story

“I always had the painful experience of seeing the other children go to school with their rucksacks,” says 14-year-old Zénabou. “It was tormenting because even though I was burning with a desire to find out what happened in the schools where these children went every morning, I realised very early on that it was a […]

Humans can't survive without a healthy Ocean: UN envoy

Humans can't survive without a healthy Ocean: UN envoy

The Ocean is in deep crisis. Factors such as acidification, declining fish stocks, rising temperatures and widespread pollution are contributing to a catastrophic decline in biodiversity: over half of marine species are at risk of extinction this century.

In the eye of the Caribbean storm: one year on from Irma and Maria

In the eye of the Caribbean storm: one year on from Irma and Maria

Primrose Thomas.  UNDP/Michael Atwood  In September 2017, Primrose Thomas was at her home on Barbuda, when disaster struck: two Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, swept over the islands of the eastern Caribbean, wreaking chaos and destruction.  “The first time I came back, I didn’t know where to go. I couldn’t recognize anywhere. I had to […]

‘Jerusalem is not for sale’ Palestinian President Abbas tells world leaders at UN Assembly

‘Jerusalem is not for sale’ Palestinian President Abbas tells world leaders at UN Assembly

President Abbas underscored his commitment to peace and the two-state solution, as well as the path of negotiation to achieve them, reiterating that peace in the Middle East cannot be realized without an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. “We have always fully and positively engaged with the various initiatives of the […]

UN hails new era of cooperation over Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile – but concerns persist

However, serious concerns remain over potential undeclared stockpiles and more than a decade of incomplete or inconsistent disclosures by Syria, raising doubts about full compliance. Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council on Wednesday, Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said that recent missions by the international chemical weapons watchdog (OPCW) had made “meaningful […]

From summits to street art to schools: Here’s how we’re marking World Environment Day

From summits to street art to schools: Here’s how we’re marking World Environment Day

Around the world, civil society groups and UN teams are hosting webinars, forums, summits and other diverse celebrations. It’s a collective effort that’s drawing together different wings of the UN from Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to UN Peacekeeping. Worldwide events On Tuesday, Qatar launched a national biodiversity database, concluding a three-year UNEP-led project. […]

UN chief urges world leaders to keep two-State solution ‘alive’

UN chief urges world leaders to keep two-State solution ‘alive’

“It is absolutely essential to keep alive the two-State solution perspective with all the terrible things we are witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank,” Mr. Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. He was responding to a question about his message to leaders gathering at a high-level international conference later this month […]

UN chief urges world leaders to keep two-State solution ‘alive’

UN chief urges world leaders to keep two-State solution ‘alive’

“It is absolutely essential to keep alive the two-State solution perspective with all the terrible things we are witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank,” Mr. Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. He was responding to a question about his message to leaders gathering at a high-level international conference later this month […]

In Gaza, daily food intake has fallen well below ‘survival’ level

In Gaza, daily food intake has fallen well below ‘survival’ level

Latest data simulations from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) point to the average Gazan eating just 1,400 calories per day – “or 67 per cent of what a human body needs to survive” (2,300 calories) as of May. Between October 2023 and the end of December 2024, average intake was 1,510 calories per day, […]