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UN News has learned that out of desperation, some Gazans have resorted to selling wild plants with little nutritional value, in the markets of their devastated enclave. In this special report, Ziad Taleb spoke to some of the young people trying to make a living, despite the ever-present dangers.

Leaders attending a major UN environmental conference in Nairobi must drive forward solutions to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday. 

The world urgently needs 44 million teachers by 2030 in order to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality, a new report from UNESCO, the UN agency championing education, announced this week. 

The “carnage” in Gaza has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Thursday, after almost five months of constant Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave, prompted by Hamas-led attacks. 

The UN aviation agency on Wednesday announced that air traffic levels are operating at around two per cent above their high in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic grounded much of the world’s population in lockdown.

Humanitarians are hoping that donors will robustly support a $674 million appeal for Haiti, where armed gangs continue to terrorize the population, a senior UN official said on Wednesday during a briefing to journalists in New York. 

More than 7,000 tonnes of wheat donated by war-ravaged Ukraine will help to feed one million conflict-affected people in Sudan for a month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday. 

All parties to the Gaza conflict have been responsible for “clear violations of international humanitarian law including possible war crimes”, according to the UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk.

Fallout from conflict in the Middle East and ongoing fighting in Syria are having a devastating impact on civilians inside the country, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Well over half a million Gazans are “one step away from famine”, say UN humanitarians, ahead of a Security Council meeting due to start at 3:00 PM in New York on food security in the stricken enclave. The deputy head of UN aid coordination told ambassadors that famine is "almost inevitable" unless aid can be scaled up. Follow our live coverage here.

People caught up in humanitarian emergencies are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), UN agencies and partners warned on Tuesday. 

The mobile phone industry has pledged over $9 billion towards the goal of connecting the world, said the chief of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on Monday, addressing the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

UN relief agencies operating in war-torn Gaza voiced deep frustration on Tuesday over continuing aid access restrictions placed on them by the Israeli military, after ambulances carrying patients away from a stricken hospital at the weekend were stopped for several hours while health workers were searched and detained.

The latest meeting of the “world’s parliament on the environment” opened in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday with a clear call for stronger global action to address the “triple planetary crisis” of  climate change, nature loss and pollution. 

Very little humanitarian aid has entered besieged Gaza this month, with a 50 per cent reduction compared to January, the head of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday. 

Communities in some of the most climate-change-affected areas in southern Madagascar are finding ways to thrive in increasingly challenging environments by becoming more resilient and adapting to unpredictable weather patterns.

Every two years, all 193 UN Member States have an opportunity to collectively address critical environmental issues facing the planet. This moment is the United Nations Environment Assembly, or UNEA, the sixth edition of which will be held from 26 February to 1 March, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The top UN aid official in Ukraine deplored new attacks on the cities of Odesa and Dnipro on Friday, as the full-scale Russian invasion of the country enters a third year. 

When the Russian occupation of Bucha in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ended in March 2022, widespread destruction was revealed, and a UN commission concluded that war crimes had been committed against the civilian population. Two years on, life is returning to the town on Kyiv’s outskirts, and nearby Irpin, which have been restored with UN support.

Researchers have been deployed to the Middle East and requests issued to meet with Israel officials, said the head of an independent team reviewing the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, briefing reporters at UN Headquarters on Thursday.

The UN agency serving Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has reached breaking point due to Israeli calls for its abolition and the associated funding freeze, just when it is needed most, said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

Attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea coupled with wider geopolitical and climate-related crises, are upending international trade, inflating costs and causing major delays, the UN’s trade and development body said on Thursday.

Today’s multilateral arrangements – global and regional organizations and major development banks – are “not up to the job” of helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the deputy UN chief said on Tuesday.

Myanmar’s military government is becoming an even greater threat to civilians following the imposition of a mandatory draft this month, the UN independent expert on human rights in the country said on Wednesday. 

The UN Security Council met again in emergency session in New York on Gaza Tuesday, where the United States vetoed a resolution put forward on behalf of Arab States by Algeria demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties”. 

The UN’s top relief official on Tuesday released $100 million from the Organization’s core humanitarian emergency fund to support underfunded aid operations in seven countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

People living in Madagascar are learning to adapt to rapidly altering climatic conditions in what is said to be the fourth most climate change affected country worldwide; that’s according to the UN Resident Coordinator, the most senior UN official in the Indian Ocean island nation.

At least 25 million people are struggling with soaring rates of hunger and malnutrition as the crisis arising from the war in Sudan sends shockwaves around the region, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday. 

Zero energy light bulbs and sturdy bricks for schools and homes. Some innovative communities in South Sudan are reusing waste in new ways as the world rallies to ban plastic pollution by the year’s end, with help from a small team of experts led by climate and environmental scientist Shazneen Cyrus Gazdar at theUN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

A new UN report has revealed a concerning trajectory for the Asia Pacific region, projecting a delay until 2062 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), overshooting the schedule by a staggering 32 years.