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The UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects report for 2024 projects a slowdown in global growth from an estimated 2.7 per cent in 2023 to 2.4 per cent in 2024.

Amid reports of continued Israeli airstrikes overnight in southern and central Gaza and more rocket fire into Israel from the enclave, UN teams said on Thursday they have been unable to deliver urgently needed aid to civilians beyond central areas and further north for the past three days.

Continuing airstrikes were reported across Gaza on Wednesday and “intense ground battles” between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in refugee camps in central areas that have reportedly left many dead.

Critical food aid support is to be stepped up for many hundreds of thousands of Myanmar refugees sheltering in neighbouring Bangladesh, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, announced on Tuesday.

UN humanitarians repeated dire concerns for civilians caught up in the war in Gaza on Tuesday, amid reports of continued Israeli bombardment of the southern towns of Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, direct clashes on the ground and the firing of rockets overnight by Palestinian armed groups into Israel.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is ripe to help resolve certain major problems in Africa, from farming to the health sector, but Senegalese expert Seydina Moussa Ndiaye is warning of a new “colonization” of the continent by this new technology if foreign companies continue to feed on African data without involving local actors.

Halting unsustainable consumption and production which have contributed to the decline of biodiversity and the health of the world’s marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems was central to the establishment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In Gaza, at least 100,000 displaced people have poured into Rafah in recent days, UN humanitarians said on Friday, worsening already dire conditions in the southernmost part of the enclave.

The global push for a safer, greener and more just world, as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, has reached its halfway mark, but what progress has been made so far?

Bulldozers in refugee camps, detainees stripped naked and spat at, farmers robbed of their harvest: against the backdrop of the war in Gaza the situation in the occupied West Bank is “rapidly deteriorating” amid levels of violence not seen in years, UN rights chief Volker Türk warned on Thursday.

The top United Nations human rights official has voiced “deep alarm” over the series of attacks on communities in central Nigeria, which left at least 150 people dead and many more injured.

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has denounced a deadly Christmas Day attack by an armed group on a family in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

The world must prepare for the next pandemic and act on lessons learned from COVID-19, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a message on Wednesday to mark the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.

Aid missions to supply Gaza have become increasingly difficult amid reports of continued heavy bombing of the Strip overnight by the Israeli military and intense clashes “in most areas” with Hamas fighters, UN humanitarians warned on Wednesday.

A veteran Dutch diplomat and politician who previously held top UN positions has been appointed Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Tuesday.

Overwhelmed medics in Gaza on Tuesday continued to try to save victims of missile strikes including attacks near refugee camps in the centre of the devastated enclave that have reportedly killed well over 100 people, the UN health agency said.

Investing more in women and girls’ education, safety and economic and social empowerment will speed the drive towards gender parity. That’s according to Academy Award-winning actor, director and activist Natalie Portman.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed hope that a Security Council resolution to get more aid into Gaza, adopted on Friday, could pave the way to a humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The UN Secretary-General has reiterated his full solidarity with the people and Government of the Czech Republic in the wake of the mass shooting at the Charles University in Prague on Thursday.

As the Security Council prepared to meet once again in New York on Friday for a long-delayed vote on a pause in fighting to allow more aid into Gaza, UN rights chief Volker Türk added his voice to deep concerns over the rising threat of famine across the Strip.

The year 2023 has presented more challenges for Syria, marked by devastating earthquakes, escalating humanitarian needs and the most severe fighting in years, the UN’s envoy for the country said on Thursday.

After intense negotiations all week behind closed doors at the 15-member Security Council, ambassadors are still negotiating over a draft resolution penned by the United Arab Emirates which calls for an “urgent suspension” of the conflict to allow safe and unhindered delivery of aid to stricken civilians in the Gaza Strip. The Council is expected to meet on the crisis later on Thursday and we'll bring you live coverage here...

There are no functioning hospitals in the north of Gaza and injured patients who need surgery and cannot be moved are “waiting to die”, the UN health agency said on Thursday, in a plea for a ceasefire to allow more aid into the shattered enclave.

As the UN Security Council was slated to meet for a third consecutive day on Wednesday in a new push for consensus to pause the fighting in Gaza, the head of the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF warned that without safe water, “many more children” will soon die from disease.

The ‘innocent hope for peace’ demonstrated by Ukrainian children and the determination of all citizens there to look to the future, is helping the country survive into a second winter of Russia’s full-blown invasion, according to the senior UNICEF representative based in Kyiv.

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it has temporarily suspended assistance in some parts of Al Jazirah State in Sudan as conflict has spread south and east of the capital, Khartoum. 

Lack of progress in resolving human rights issues is a key factor behind the current impasse between Afghanistan and the international community, the UN Special Representative for the country said on Wednesday in a briefing to the Security Council in New York. 

Tuesday marks another crucial day again at the Security Council, where diplomatic negotiations are continuing to find consensus on further unified action in response to the crisis in Gaza, more than ten weeks after terror attacks by Hamas plunged the Israel-Palestine conflict into an unprecedented phase of violence. Follow our live coverage here.

Gaza is by far the most dangerous place in the world to be a child and deaths of youngsters from disease will likely surpass those from bombardment in the absence of a ceasefire, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.

“Haiti is not hopeless”, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Monday during a meeting addressing the multiple crises besetting the Caribbean nation, alongside the presidents of the UN Security Council and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).