United Nations

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday upheld the safety of childhood vaccines in response to a new directive from the White House to overhaul the recommended inoculation schedule.

Five years after the Taliban seized power, women and girls in Afghanistan have been systematically stripped of their rights, UN agencies said on Wednesday. De facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees curbing education, work and freedom of movement – restrictions now compounded by deep cuts to aid on the ground.

A strike on a merchant ship off the southern coast of Yemen that reportedly killed several seafarers on Tuesday threatens to reignite deep concerns about global trade, amid the ongoing Iran-US war that has choked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Frustrated by skyrocketing youth unemployment, among other issues, tens of thousands of Gen Z activists took to the streets of Nepal last year, demanding a stake in the country’s economic growth. The protest worked and the prime minister resigned.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has condemned recent armed group attacks in Warrap state which reportedly left more than 60 civilians dead and 50 others injured. 

Local officials in the DR Congo (DRC) reported on Tuesday that deaths from the Ebola virus disease have surpassed 2,000, with half of that number in the last 20 days.

As multiple regions contend with unbearable heat, drought, wildfires and other extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday underlined the crucial need for stronger forecasts and early warning systems to protect lives and livelihoods. 

The Security Council held an open debate on Tuesday which is expected to address escalating Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinians and their property continue. UN News app users can follow here.

As earthquake rescue efforts across western Colombia continued on Tuesday, UN agencies said that they stood ready to help “with everything we've got”, in coordination with national authorities.

Myanmar's military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians – including airstrikes on homes, schools and camps for displaced people, alongside arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence – according to Human Rights Council-appointed investigators.

In a new twist on panda diplomacy, UN Geneva welcomed five young peacocks to the Palace of Nations on Friday, a gift of India that preserves a tradition of keeping the stately birds in the grounds, that predates both the global body and its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations.

More than 300 children have died in the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN said on Friday, as health experts urged trials of the only vaccine against the disease to halt further spread of the rare Bundibugyo species.

The cost of key foods edged up last month as searing heatwaves and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty impacted energy prices around the world.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned on Wednesday the deadliest Russian strikes on Kyiv this year, which killed 17 people and caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure overnight.

Independent UN human rights experts on Thursday condemned a fresh round of US sanctions against Cuba, calling them an attempt to force change on “a sovereign State through threats and coercion.”

Agencies are on high alert amid reports that the rapidly spreading Ebola Bundibugyo virus species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has infected 19 internally displaced people, killed five of them, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).

Gangs in Haiti continue to terrorise communities with the “wanton, intentional infliction of incredible pain” on people who often are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nearly eight million people in South Sudan – more than half the population – face crisis-level hunger, with famine risk now flagged in four counties, as the Security Council met this morning in New York. A cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,700 people, and some aid workers are being killed and abducted even as they try to reach those most at risk. Follow live coverage below.

At least 300 children in Gaza have been reportedly killed in as many days since a ceasefire agreement supposedly came into effect last October to suspend military operations between Hamas fighters and the Israel Defense Forces, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

Eighty-one years ago on Thursday, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, reducing the city to ruins, killing tens of thousands of people and bringing the world “face to face with the catastrophic power of nuclear war”.