United Nations

UN Says Yemen's Houthis Detaining 20 Staff, Including 15 Foreigners

The UN's office in Yemen said Sunday that 20 of its staff were still being detained by Houthis following a raid on their building in Sanaa the day before. On Saturday, the UN office had said Houthi security forces had made an "unauthorized entry" into their compound, adding the staff there were "safe and accounted for." "Five national staff and ...

Hamas Says Committed to Gaza Truce and Returning Hostage Remains

Hamas insisted it was committed to returning all the hostage remains still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins, as a Turkish official said specialists dispatched to help find bodies were on Friday awaiting Israeli permission to enter. Responding to a call from Hamas for help locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside ...

Climate and Poverty: UN Warns of a Double Burden for 900 Million People

Nearly 80 percent of the world's poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a "double and deeply unequal burden," the United Nations warned Friday. "No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and stronger climate change effects like droughts, floods, heat waves, and air ...

UN Humanitarian Chief Says Israel Should Immediately Open Gaza Crossings to Aid

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher urged Israel on Wednesday to immediately open all crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid, as called for in a US-backed ceasefire plan. "It should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement," Fletcher told AFP in an interview in Cairo, ahead of a planned trip to the Gaza ...

Uncertainty Surrounds Rafah Crossing Reopening Despite Initial Israeli Announcement

Despite earlier reports indicating that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip would reopen on Wednesday for the delivery of humanitarian aid, its status remains uncertain, with conflicting information emerging from Israeli sources. According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Israeli authorities had approved the reopening of ...

Macron Praises Lebanon’s Efforts to Consolidate State Authority

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday hailed what he described as Lebanon’s “courageous decisions” aimed at ensuring that arms remain solely in the hands of legitimate state forces. In a letter to his Lebanese counterpart, President Joseph Aoun, Macron reaffirmed his commitment to convening two international conferences in support of ...

Spread of Drug-Resistant Superbugs Surging, WHO Warns

The World Health Organization sounded the alarm Monday over soaring numbers of drug-resistant bacterial infections, compromising the effectiveness of life-saving treatments and rendering minor injuries and common infections potentially deadly. The United Nations' health agency warned that one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections ...

Failure to Disarm Hezbollah Blocks Reconstruction Efforts

Israeli airstrikes targeting bulldozers and excavators in Msayleh, southern Lebanon, on Saturday were not an isolated incident. Similar attacks occurred earlier, on September 3, in the Ansariyeh region. Heavy machinery, including excavators and bulldozers, has been repeatedly struck in several towns and villages along—and even beyond—the ...

UN Force in Lebanon Says Peacekeeper Wounded by Israeli Grenade

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Sunday that one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country's south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been working with the Lebanese army to support a November ...

International Sanctions: Mechanisms, Loopholes and Limits

Despite a major military setback suffered by the Iran-aligned axis in its war against Israel and the sanctions imposed on it, Hezbollah reportedly continues to receive $60 million per month in transfers from Iran. That is according to US envoy Thomas Barrack, who made the claim on September 22 in an interview with Sky News. In this context, a ...

September Third-Hottest Globally on Record

The world just had its third-hottest September on record, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday, as global average temperatures remained stuck near historic highs for yet another month. September did not break the record for the month set in 2023 and was only marginally cooler than the same period last year, said the EU's global ...

Iran Says Cooperation with UN Nuclear Watchdog 'No Longer Relevant'

Iran's top diplomat said Sunday that cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog was no longer relevant following the reimposition of international sanctions on the Islamic republic. "The Cairo agreement is no longer relevant for our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," Foreign Minister Abbas ...