Week in Review

There are many dangers lurking in the shadows just off the bustling streets of the Afghan capital Kabul, but none is more threatening than the drug abuse crisis that is ravaging the city, and the entire country.

The Security Council on Friday unanimously approved the complete withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces in Mali, although it will take six months for the final “blue helmets” to depart.

Following a third night of riots and protests across France over the police shooting of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said it was time for the country to reckon with its history of racism in policing.

People who use drugs in Thailand are receiving more help to reduce the harm caused by their habit thanks to a change in formerly punitive drug laws and support from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

With over 18,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) lurking beyond the stratosphere, 2,000 of which are classified as potentially hazardous, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is using Friday’s International Asteroid Day to raise awareness across the planet.

Immediate action needs to be taken by the international community to address conditions in Haiti, otherwise “it’s hard to imagine a decent future” for the Caribbean nation, said the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday.

The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv had just survived another missile attack in the spring of 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion, when historian, architect, and documentary filmmaker Maxim Rosenfeld stood in the penthouse of a ruined office building, presenting his concept for a new urban landscape after a UN-supported team of international and local architects adopted his vision.

A cross-border collaboration between law enforcement agencies in countries in Southeast Asia supported by the UN in Thailand is helping to tackle organized crime along one of the world’s “biggest drug trafficking corridors”.

Close to 200 million people around the world are unemployed, and fears are rising that artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as Chat GPT will put even more people out of a job.

Alongside AI threats to the labour market, positive effects are also expected, such as helping workers automate more repetitive tasks to free up time for higher value work. But given the gaping digital divide between wealthier and poorer nations, will developing countries be able to reap AI’s productivity benefits?

Senior Economist Janine Berg from the International Labour Organization (ILO) is currently driving new research on the impact of AI on the world of work. She sat down with UN News’s Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer to assess the latest developments.

The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect the world’s poorest families, which is all the more reason to redouble efforts to push for grain and fertilizer to leave key Black Sea ports, top UN economist Rebeca Grynspan said on Tuesday.

Ms. Grynspan, who is Secretary-General of the UN trade and development body UNCTAD, said although “there are things that are very difficult to solve… the UN will not spare any effort in trying to make this continue working for the future”. 

Before 18 July – when a 60-day extension of the Black Sea Initiative by Russia is set to expire – Ms. Grynspan told UN News’s Daniel Johnson she’d likely head to Moscow to continue negotiations.

While no longer a global emergency, COVID-19’s lasting effects alongside such other threats as mpox and seasonal heat waves may still prove challenging for Europe through the summer months, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) regional office warned on Tuesday.

An independent UN-appointed climate expert on Tuesday called for full legal protection to be given to those displaced by the impacts of climate change, to guarantee their human rights.

Unless decisive steps are swiftly taken to rein in Israeli-Palestinian violence, there is a “significant risk” that the situation could deteriorate, the top UN Middle East official told the Security Council on Tuesday.

With security and humanitarian crises mounting across much of Africa, the international community is making a mistake by not engaging fully with South Sudan, which is at the centre of an increasingly volatile region.

That’s the view of the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the world’s youngest nation, Nicholas Haysom, who told UN News that if a fresh crisis erupts there in combination with the military power struggle in neighbouring Sudan, it would be “catastrophic” for the whole Horn of Africa.

Maoqi Li asked the head of UNMISS and UN Special Representative why he thought South Sudan was not getting the attention it deserved.

For “countless civilians” caught in current conflicts around the world, taking responsibility for protecting them to prevent atrocities is more critical than ever, a senior UN official told the General Assembly on Monday.