‘Entire families brutally erased’: Remembering the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Serge Gasore’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares. He was a young child when the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi began in Rwanda and narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions. His mother was murdered, and he saw his grandmother killed by a grenade attack on a church where Tutsis were hiding. He spent weeks fleeing […]

Continue Reading

Record number of wildfires in 2025 calls for stronger EU action

The European Union experienced its most devastating wildfire season on record in 2025, with over 1 million hectares of land burnt – an area roughly the size of Cyprus – according to new data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), managed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. EFFIS satellite monitoring revealed that […]

Continue Reading

Middle East war: UN’s Türk decries ‘severe restrictions’ on free speech

“Repression of civic space and freedom of expression has significantly deepened across the Middle East, compounding the already existing climate of fear unleashed by multiple conflicts and crises,” UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Wednesday. Iran accounts for the bulk of reported arrests, impacting nearly 2,350 people since the conflict began, according to […]

Continue Reading

Ukraine wakes to more violence as Russia’s full-scale invasion enters fifth year

“Four years ago, people in Europe woke up in another world because generations like mine have always had the privilege to live a life in peace,” Ms. Baerbock told journalists in Geneva. “But this changed four years ago with the full invasion [by] Russia, of the neighbouring country of Ukraine.” Echoing the UN Secretary-General’s assessment that the […]

Continue Reading

Organized crime and poor regulation to blame for toxic pollution threat

In a new report on the underground global scourge that conservative estimates say generates up to $18 billion in illicit profits annually, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) highlighted that all regions of the world have been drawn in, although little data is available outside Europe.  Globally, legal waste management was worth $1.2 trillion […]

Continue Reading

EU check reveals misleading sales practices online

  The European Commission and consumer protection authorities have discovered that some online discounts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were misleading, thanks to the latest sweep.  Sweeps are screenings that are coordinated by the Commission and carried out simultaneously by national enforcement authorities. Authorities from 23 EU countries, as well as Iceland and Norway, […]

Continue Reading

UN calls for fair play in the global race for critical minerals

Despite geopolitical upheavals, the shift from a fossil-fuel-based global economy to one driven by clean electrification remains on track.  According to the International Energy Agency (an autonomous international agency that is not part of the UN system), lithium demand grew by nearly 30 per cent in 2024, and nickel, cobalt, graphite, and rare earths by […]

Continue Reading

EU releases additional €2 million in humanitarian aid for the Cuban population

In view of the worsening humanitarian conditions in Cuba, the European Commission has released an additional €2 million in humanitarian aid. This funding will contribute to provide logistics support to humanitarian partners delivering urgent relief to the most vulnerable, due to the current energy crisis and related difficulties on the distribution of food and drinking […]

Continue Reading