United Nations

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, millions in Ukraine struggle to keep the lights on and heat their homes, with the crisis taking a particular toll on women, humanitarians warned on Friday.

There has been an “alarming increase” in the number of children being recruited into gangs in Haiti with “devastating consequences” for children, families and society as a whole, the UN reported on Friday.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for the immediate release of all children detained during the recent public unrest in Iran, expressing deep concern that minors arrested in connection with the protests remain behind bars.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up its emergency response in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, where escalating conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and pushed hunger to critical levels.

Nearly three years into Sudan’s war, violence is intensifying, famine conditions are looming in parts of the country, and civilians remain trapped between shifting front lines, senior UN political and humanitarian officials told the Security Council on Thursday, warning that the risk of further mass atrocities remains alarmingly high.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has warned that without urgent guardrails, AI risks deepening inequality, amplifying bias and fuelling real-world harm. 

The UN Security Council meets this morning to discuss Sudan as the war nears its third year, with fighting intensifying across multiple regions and civilians facing deepening humanitarian catastrophe. Senior UN political and humanitarian officials are expected to brief ministers on a conflict marked by shifting front lines, advanced weaponry and widespread displacement. The meeting comes amid fresh warnings that atrocities in Darfur, including acts bearing the “hallmarks of genocide” in El Fasher, signal a dangerous escalation. Follow the live coverage below, UN News App users click here.

Increased Israeli attacks and the forced transfer of Palestinians have sparked concern over ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report issued on Thursday. 

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence and enforced disappearances during their late-October takeover of El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region — acts that a UN fact-finding mission said show “hallmarks of genocide” against the Zaghawa and Fur communities and signal an ongoing risk of further atrocities.

The future of artificial intelligence “cannot be decided by a handful of countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires,” the UN Secretary-General told the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Thursday, calling for a global fund to help developing nations to better access these technologies.  

The world has “entered the age of clean energy” and renewables are now the cheapest, fastest and safest source of new electricity almost everywhere, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message to the International Energy Agency ministerial meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

The UN Security Council meets at 3 PM (New York time) on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, with rising tensions in the occupied West Bank expected to dominate the session. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo is scheduled to brief members. The meeting follows recent Israeli cabinet decisions expanding control in Areas A, B and C of the West Bank. Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the current trajectory is “eroding the prospect” of a two-State solution. Follow the live coverage below, UN News App users click here.

Climate inaction, biodiversity loss and rising emissions are pushing Asia and the Pacific further off course on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the region set to miss nearly nine out of ten targets by 2030, the United Nations has warned.

Artificial intelligence solutions that transform the way food assistance reaches people facing hunger were on display during an exhibition at an AI meeting this week in New Delhi, India. 

After a year that saw heavy monsoon floods, prolonged drought and dry spells, and a surge in violence, 7.5 million people in Pakistan face high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition according to a report from the global hunger monitor. 

Creators worldwide are facing mounting financial pressures as rapid advances in digital technologies and artificial intelligence continue to transform the cultural and creative industries, according to a new global report released by the UN culture agency, UNESCO, on Wednesday. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Wednesday for warring parties in Sudan to take urgent steps to protect civilians after at least 57 people were killed in separate drone strikes over two days this week. 

Libya’s prolonged political stalemate, worsening economic conditions and an emerging split within the judiciary pose mounting risks to the country’s unity, the UN’s top envoy for the country, Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, told the Security Council on Wednesday.

At least 52 people have died after Tropical Cyclone Gezani made landfall on the eastern coast of Madagascar on 10 February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday, citing the authorities.

Palestinian Walid Al-Assi was playing with his young granddaughter this week, promising to take her to the market in Gaza City with the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan as his family had done before the Israel-Hamas war, but now circumstances had changed.