Kabul rehabilitation centre strike: joint statement by High Representative/Vice President Kallas and Commissioner Lahbib

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, and Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, issued the following statement: ‘The strike on a medical facility in Kabul is another deadly escalation in a conflict that needs to end as soon as possible. Civilian and medical facilities must never be targeted as […]

Continue Reading

World News in Brief: West Bank displacement, Cuba fuel crisis, sexual abuse safeguards, new ‘humancentric’ AI advocate

According to the UN human rights office, UNHCR, more than 36,000 Palestinians were displaced in the year to October 2025 amid intensifying settlement activity and settler violence. The report highlights a sharp rise in attacks by settlers, alongside demolitions, land seizures and severe restrictions on access to services, creating what it describes as a “coercive […]

Continue Reading

Office of Public Affairs | Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Black-Market Peso Exchange Money Laundering Scheme

A Mexican national pleaded guilty yesterday to participating in a two-year, multimillion-dollar trade-based money laundering conspiracy that moved drug trafficking proceeds through Texas to Mexico. According to court documents, Gabriel Arturo Castillo, 52, of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, participated in a sophisticated, international money laundering conspiracy to transfer proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs […]

Continue Reading

EU announces €458 million in humanitarian aid for the war-torn Middle East

The European Commission is confirming €450 million in humanitarian aid for Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt in 2026. With major donors withdrawing from the region and international humanitarian law under unprecedented strain, the EU is sustaining life-saving assistance to millions of people. In Syria, €210 million in EU humanitarian funding will sustain life-saving emergency […]

Continue Reading

Iran ceasefire raises hopes for reopening key Strait of Hormuz

The strait has become a global flashpoint which has driven up the price of oil, threatened the safety of ships and seafarers while rocking regional stability. Early signs are mixed as of Wednesday night, but the US and Iran are due to hold negotiations on solidifying the truce in Pakistan at the weekend.  Why it […]

Continue Reading

‘No matter what’, UN Women vows to stay in Afghanistan, amid deepening rights crisis

The agency is operating in what it describes as the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis, where women are nearly four times less likely than men to access formal justice. Yet programmes remain active, reaching hundreds of thousands in need. “Despite the restrictions on women and girls and the current conflicts…no matter what, UN Women […]

Continue Reading

Sudan: Hospital strike highlights surge in drone attacks on civilians

The Teaching Hospital in East Darfur’s capital, Al Deain, was struck late Friday, a new low in the brutal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted in April 2023. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people killed has risen to 70, […]

Continue Reading

Commission invites 150 EU citizens to help shape future preparedness actions

Tomorrow, the 1st session of the European Citizens’ Panel on Preparedness will start in Brussels and run until Sunday. 150 randomly selected citizens from across Europe will discuss recommendations on how to implement the Preparedness Union Strategy, which emphasises active citizen engagement for effective crisis preparedness. Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, […]

Continue Reading

The UN housing development which challenged 1940s’ segregated United States

In the United States of that period, laws in many states enforced separate schools, transportation and bathrooms based solely on race. The military was still segregated, laws prohibiting interracial marriage remained in place and many housing developments enforced “whites-only” policies.  One early resident and later UN staff member, Carlos Figueroa, remembered being friends with children […]

Continue Reading

Remembering the Brussels terror attacks 10 years later

  On 22 March, Belgium will mark 10 years since the attacks in Brussels in 2016, when suicide bombers targeted Brussels airport and its metro. The attacks claimed 32 lives and left more than 300 people injured, sending shockwaves across the country and across Europe. Ten years on, many survivors continue to live with the […]

Continue Reading