U.N | DD News

March 31, 2026 10:15 AM

Three UN peacekeepers killed in Lebanon as Israeli strikes pummel south

Three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia were killed in two separate incidents in southern Lebanon after a bloody weekend in which Lebanese journalists and medics were killed in Israeli strikes. Two peacekeepers were killed on Monday after an explosion from an unknown origin destroyed their vehicle near Bani Hayyan in south Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL said in a statement. Two other soldiers were wounded in the blast. Another Indonesian soldier was killed overnight Sunda...

March 19, 2026 11:38 AM

How many people have been killed in the US-Israeli war on Iran?

Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran launched strikes in response. Here are the tolls reported by Thursday, which Reuters has not independently verified. IRAN U.S.-based rights group HRANA said on Tuesday that 3,114 people have been killed. It said 1,354 of those were civilians including 207 children. The group says its data comes from field reports, local contacts, medical and emergency sources, civil soc...

November 20, 2025 11:32 AM

Brazil’s Lula makes diplomatic push for early climate deal at COP30 summit

Brazil's president was meeting with key negotiators at the COP30 summit on Wednesday as part of a drive to land an early deal on some of the most divisive issues in the global climate talks, including fossil fuels and climate finance. The two-week U.N. summit in the Amazon city of Belem has brought nearly 200 countries together to try to ratchet up multilateral action to limit climate change, despite the absence of the U.S., the top historic greenhouse gas emitter. But rifts on key...

November 13, 2025 1:29 PM

COP30 Indigenous protesters defend summit incursion as climate talks roll on

Indigenous protesters on Wednesday defended charging the gates of Brazil's COP30 climate summit and clashing with security a day earlier, saying the action was aimed at demonstrating the desperation of their fight for forest protection. With negotiators from countries across the globe inside the compound discussing the world's changing future as temperatures rise, the protesters told a news conference they wanted mostly to have their voices heard. "It was an attempt to get the attention of the...

October 6, 2025 4:03 PM

UN Cultural Agency Votes for New Chief after US withdrawal

UNESCO will choose its next chief on Monday to lead the organisation after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it for a second time. While outgoing chief Audrey Azoulay has worked to diversify funding sources, the U.N. culture and education agency still receives about 8% of its budget from Washington. Once the withdrawal takes effect at the end of 2026, that funding will be cut. The White House described UNESCO as supporting "woke, divisive cultural and social causes" when...

November 25, 2024 10:18 AM

Countries remain divided as fifth U.N. plastics treaty talks begin

As delegates from 175 countries gathered in Busan, South Korea on Monday for the fifth round of talks aimed at securing an international treaty to curb plastic pollution, lingering divisions cast doubts on whether a final agreement is in sight. South Korea is hosting the fifth and ostensibly final U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting this week, after the previous round of talks in Ottawa in April ended without a path forward on capping plastic production. Instead, talks...

November 18, 2024 11:01 AM

G20 talks in Rio reach breakthrough on climate finance, sources say

Diplomatic tensions over global warming spilled over into the G20 summit negotiations in Brazil this week, with sources saying the 20 major economies reached a fragile consensus on climate finance that had eluded U.N. talks in Azerbaijan. Heads of state arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday for the G20 summit and will spend Monday and Tuesday addressing issues from poverty and hunger to the reform of global institutions. The talks must now also grapple with how to address escalating violence in U...

November 4, 2024 12:10 PM

Public funding for nature conservation stalls at COP16, eyes on private investment

Wealthy nations appeared to hit a limit with how much they are willing to pay to conserve nature around the world, instead shifting their focus at the two-week U.N. biodiversity summit toward discussions of private money filling the funding gap. At the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, countries failed to figure out how they would mobilize $200 billion annually in conservation funding by 2030, including $30 billion that would come directly from rich nations. That money, pledged two years a...

September 25, 2024 7:51 PM

US to provide another $424 million in Sudan aid

The United States will give a further $424 million in humanitarian help to the people of Sudan, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced on Wednesday. War erupted in mid-April last year from a power struggle between the Sudanese army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. "More than 25 million Sudanese face acute hunger. Many are in famine ... and some 11 million have fled their homes in what has become the...

May 7, 2024 5:27 PM

Israel says it has taken control of Gaza side of Rafah Crossing amid truce talks

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had taken operational control of the Palestinian side of Gaza's southern Rafah Crossing, which borders Egypt and has been pivotal for the delivery of aid and exit of injured people in the Gaza war. The military said forces were scanning the area in the morning after launching a ground and air operation in part of eastern Rafah on Monday night, amid diplomatic efforts abroad to achieve a new truce. The Gaza Crossings Authority said in a statement that I...