World News

A special climate summit organised by UN Secretary General António Guterres is set to open in New York, but some key world leaders, including Donald Trump, will not take part. Mr Guterres expects leaders to come with new and ambitious plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Youth activists, including Greta Thunberg, will address delegates. Ahead of the one-day summit, scientists ...

Top climate scientists issued a report on Sunday showing that over the last several years, sea-level rise, planetary warming, shrinking ice sheets and carbon pollution have accelerated; a sobering call to action for political leaders headed to New York for summit-level climate change talks tomorrow at the United Nations. The landmark new report, which will be presented to the UN Climate Action ...

Incidents of modern-day slavery are “only likely to increase” as a result of some of biggest challenges facing the world today, a UN expert outlined in a report for the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Urmila Bhoola, explained that over 40 million people are enslaved around the world, a quarter of them ...

Despite progress in national prevention strategies, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General lamented on Monday, highlighting key findings of the agency’s latest report on global suicide estimates. Speaking in Geneva ahead of World Suicide Prevention day, recognized on 10 September, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “every death is a tragedy for family friends and colleagues,” yet ...

Although terrorists have become skilled at manipulating the Internet and other new technologies, artificial intelligence or AI, is a powerful tool in the fight against them, a top UN counter-terrorism official said this week at a high-level conference on strengthening international cooperation against the scourge. Co-organized by Belarus and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), “Countering terrorism through innovative ...

Refugee children in their millions are missing out on an education, the UN said on Friday, in an appeal to host countries to back more inclusive policies to prevent them from “languishing” in camps for years and losing hope. According to the new UN refugee agency (UNHCR) report,  Stepping Up, of 7.1 million refugee youngsters of school age, more than half ...

More than 500 million people today live in areas affected by erosion linked to climate change, the UN warned on Thursday, before urging all countries to commit to sustainable land use to help limit greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late. Speaking at the launch of a Special Report on Climate Change and Land by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on ...

With Zimbabwe now experiencing its “worst-ever hunger crisis”, the UN food relief agency has revised its humanitarian appeal to step up food assistance to people most affected by drought, flooding, and economic stagnation. “Yesterday the humanitarian community launched an urgent appeal for funds to respond to the country’s very difficult humanitarian situation”, World Food Programme (WFP) Spokesperson Herve Verhoosel told ...

After a horrific two-year ordeal across three countries – being bought and sold by people traffickers and surviving running out of fuel on an inflatable boat while trying to cross the Mediterranean – Mohamed finally gave up hope. The Somali man’s wife Leyla, 21, recalls the day he burnt himself to death after hearing that they were not on a ...

Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu says the country will not change its laws on homosexuality in exchange for donor aid. According to the state-owned Daily Mail, Mr Lungu made the remarks when outgoing Swedish Ambassador to Zambia, Henrik Cederin, and European Union head of delegation Alessandro Mariani visited him at the state house. The president was quoted as saying that “there ...