UN News Global

Right after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, UNOOSA, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, was established and has since been monitoring developments across more than 77 successful lunar missions and other journeys while also taking a lead role in the annual World Space Week, which runs from 4 to 10 October.

A documentary drawn from United Nations University research was screened at the COP30 climate conference and film festivals across Europe. Its most important journey, though, was the one back to the Mexico City canals where it was filmed.

Rotting food waste is causing up to 10 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions – five times more than the entire aviation sector, the UN’s environment agency warned this week.

The package originated in Entebbe, Uganda, bound for Cairo, containing 10 kilograms of thumb-sized pieces that could have been either bone or elephant ivory.

Getting aid to people in the world’s most neglected emergencies takes more than money. It takes open roads, open borders and leaders willing to help it reach those in dire need.

People around the world are living longer again, with global life expectancy almost fully recovered from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The war in Ukraine is a human rights catastrophe that is “growing and intensifying by the week” and threatening an even greater disaster across the region, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Friday.

Governments, UN entities, civil society, media, academia and the private sector have called for stronger cooperation and practical action to respond to a rapidly changing global information landscape.

Haitians remain in the grip of lethal gang violence as it continues to “adapt and expand”, the UN’s top rights official, Volker Türk, said on Friday.

Renewed conflict in Yemen has triggered a surge in hunger that could have consequences in the wider region and beyond, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday. 

Repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and more from Israel into Gaza risk having devastating consequences on Palestinians who urgently need them in the war-torn enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. 

A teenage girl who fled war-torn Sudan for neighbouring Egypt and hopes to pursue a technology degree is an example of why countries must ensure that young refugees can continue to learn.

The General Assembly met on Thursday to examine the Security Council’s latest veto, cast by China and Russia over a United States-backed sanctions panel of experts on Iran nuclear facilities.

The UN human rights chief and nine independent rights experts on Thursday called on authorities in Tennessee not to pursue any further attempts to execute Christa Pike, saying her case highlights multiple concerns surrounding the death penalty.

The enduring radioactive legacy of US nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands took centre stage at the Human Rights Council on Thursday.

Women must be at the centre of efforts to prevent conflict and build lasting peace, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Thursday.

The deadly flash floods in northern Nepal have severely disrupted employment and livelihoods, with wider impacts beyond communities that were directly affected, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a preliminary assessment released on Thursday.

The enormous challenge of halting the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just became even harder after a key transit centre for patients requiring treatment burned down in Ituri province.

The UN is continuing efforts to support Palestinians in Gaza amid major challenges to humanitarian access, reconstruction and the restoration of essential services, according to Ramiz Alakbarov, Acting UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

Artificial Intelligence or AI – and the technology behind it – is moving fast. The question being asked across the world is who gets a seat at the table deciding how it's used and who gets to benefit.