UN News - Global perspective Human stories

• Guterres: Old global order must change as power shifts to emerging economies
  UN Secretary-General António Guterres told leaders of a bloc of major emerging economies in New Delhi on Sunday that a more balanced global order requires an overhaul of the institutions built after the Second World War, including the UN Security Council.
• Married at 13, pregnant and starving: Child brides of Yemen
  Fatimah* was 13 when she was married off to an older man. Two years later, she gave birth to twin daughters.
• ‘Where do we go?’: How Israel’s ‘yellow line’ is closing in on Palestinians
  Ola Ishtiwi sits with her children in front of the remains of her home in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, a few metres away from a series of painted cement blocks Israel has placed to mark what has become known as the “yellow line”.
• Security Council LIVE: Ambassadors mark 9/11 with counter-terrorism push on AI and drones
  The Security Council met to mark 25 years since the 9/11 attacks with a briefing on counter-terrorism as ambassadors take stock of a threat that has morphed dramatically since resolution 1373 built the council's counter-terrorism machinery in 2001. Briefers highlighted militants' growing use of artificial intelligence, drones and encrypted platforms for recruitment and attack planning.
• The world just had the hottest August ever
  Earth just had the hottest August on record, according to newly released weather data.
• Surge in displacement following fighting in southwest Yemen
  At least 46,000 people have been displaced since renewed fighting last week between Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in southwestern Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Friday. 
• Terrorist propaganda is outpacing global efforts to stop it, UN report finds
  Terrorist groups are recruiting, raising money and even planning operations through propaganda that is now “embedded” in every stage of their work, a new UN report warns – and governments are struggling to keep pace. 
• Ukraine: Drone attacks on Chornobyl are ‘gambling with the safety of millions of people’
  A drone strike on the protective structure at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant could have endangered the safety of millions of people, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Alexander De Croo told reporters via video link from Kyiv on Thursday.
• UN climate chief warns political division is undermining fight against ‘economic security emergency’
  The head of the UN's climate body has warned that treating global warming as a partisan issue is dangerously out of step with reality, as he set out a stark account of the economic toll climate change is already inflicting on Europe.
• ‘An assault on humanity itself’: Guterres pays tribute to 9/11 victims, survivors and first responders
  Twenty-five years ago, the heinous terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 against the United States claimed thousands of lives and represented “an assault on humanity itself”, the UN chief said on Thursday.
• Security Council LIVE: Fresh attacks prompt emergency meeting on Yemen
  On the heels of reported Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and the capture of another key port by the militants on Yemen’s Red Sea coast – including the seizure of eight UN vehicles from a key aid hub there – the Security Council is meeting on Thursday at 3pm in New York to discuss the latest developments.
• Human cost of violence in South Sudan ‘continues to grow’
  Independent human rights investigators voiced deep concern over growing risks to both civilians and South Sudan’s political transition following their latest fact-finding mission to the world’s youngest nation – their 14th in a decade. 
• ‘The water comes up to our knees’: Climate hazards shut millions of children out of school in 2025
  When the creek beside Taudibura Garo's school in Papua New Guinea floods, the water doesn't stop at the gate. It rises through the pit toilets – making the school unsafe – sending the 16-year-old and her classmates home without being able to finish.
• Flood-ravaged Nepal calls for climate justice
  Nepal’s call for financial compensation following recent deadly floods underlines the need to help countries that contribute the least to climate change – but are increasingly grappling with its most lethal consequences, the top UN official in the country said on Wednesday.
• Plight of Afghans going ‘from bad to worse’, but the world is looking away: Türk
  Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the plight of Afghans has only deteriorated, with millions impoverished while authorities violate basic human rights daily. 
• UN hails Libya election deal as Security Council urges Libyans to seize the moment
  The UN Security Council has welcomed a breakthrough agreement between Libya's rival political blocs, calling it "an important step" towards the country's first national elections in over a decade – while pressing all sides to move quickly from paper to practice.
• Guterres urges leaders to invest in peace as conflicts deepen
  The UN Secretary-General appealed on Wednesday for world leaders to invest in peace as violence, division and conflict exacerbate suffering worldwide. 
• Record number of attacks on education, global fund warns
  While September traditionally marks the start of the school year across the northern hemisphere, a staggering 93 million children are not in class at all amid an unprecedented number of attacks on learning, education experts warned on Wednesday.
• Ships and seafarers increasingly caught in the crossfire of unrelated wars
  The global shipping industry is facing a "genuinely unprecedented" convergence of maritime crises, with vessels and seafarers increasingly used as “leverage” in conflicts that have nothing to do with them.
• UN chief demands Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon amid Nabatieh escalation
  The Secretary-General has condemned mounting civilian casualties in southern Lebanon and called on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory, as fighting intensifies in and around Nabatieh.
• AI datacentres pose growing threat to electricity systems worldwide
  Use of data-intensive technologies – in particular artificial intelligence (AI) data centres – is growing faster than electricity infrastructure can handle, the UN’s economic commission for Europe has warned, raising concerns about the future reliability and resilience of energy systems worldwide. 
• Ebola response in eastern DR Congo must include food assistance, WFP says
  As Ebola sweeps across the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), ensuring families meet their basic food needs is crucial to halt the spread of the deadly disease.
• ‘This is not 1945’: General Assembly president gavels open new session aimed at restoring global trust
  The UN General Assembly gavelled open its 81st session on Tuesday at UN Headquarters as the incoming president pledged to restore public trust in the institution during a time of war, humanitarian crises and intensifying climate change.
• Syria’s transition hinges on justice for all, UN Human Rights Council hears
  A successful and lasting transition in Syria requires comprehensive accountability, inclusion and guarantees that violations will not be repeated, UN independent investigators told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.
• In Gaza, women-headed households face ‘impossible choices’ to survive
  In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.