Week in Review

A UN-led operation to remove over one million barrels of crude oil from a rusting supertanker off Yemen safely concluded on Friday, preventing the immediate threat of a massive spill in the Red Sea.

The United Nations on Friday welcomed the release of five of its security personnel in Yemen who had been held in captivity for more than a year.

The United Nations has strongly condemned the assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador, urging authorities to investigate the crime.

A deal has been reached with the Government of Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Türkiye to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid. 

Dire predictions about escalating hunger in Sudan have tragically come true, as conflict-induced food scarcity has plunged 20.3 million people into severe acute hunger, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.

A UN health centre providing medical care to Palestine refugees at a camp in Lebanon reopened on Wednesday, as a ceasefire between opposing armed groups holds.

The UN rights chief concluded his first ever visit to Iraq, where he highlighted pressing human rights concerns, climate change impacts, and the need for reforms. He also called for the country’s leaders to be guided by the interests of the Iraqi people in addressing the challenges they face.

Three UN agencies on Thursday appealed for greater access to safe and regular pathways for migration and asylum in the European Union after another deadly shipwreck claimed dozens of lives in the Mediterranean.

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) on Tuesday revealed compelling evidence of the country’s military and affiliate militias engaging in more frequent and audacious war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As the world celebrates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Wednesday, the theme of “Indigenous youth as agents of change for self-determination” is taking centre stage at the United Nations.

The global average temperature for July 2023 was the highest on record and likely for at least 120,000 years, the UN weather agency and partners said on Tuesday.

The UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Patron of the Oceans, Lewis Pugh, is on a quest to swim the length of the iconic Hudson River in New York state to draw attention to the critical importance of healthy river ecosystems to oceans and the overall environment. 

Young mothers in Thailand are receiving support to overcome the challenges they face in a country where teenage pregnancy is still taboo. 

A significant surge in dengue fever cases has gripped Bangladesh, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday, calling for efforts to control the mosquito vector population and minimize individual exposure such as using mosquito repellents and wearing long-sleeved clothes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently tracking several COVID-19 “variants of interest”, including EG.5 which is on the rise in several countries, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Wednesday.