Housing crisis takes centre stage at World Urban Forum in Baku

His video address set the tone for the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13), which comes at a critical moment as cities grapple with deepening inequalities, rapid urbanisation and a growing climate crisis. Organised by UN‑Habitat in partnership with the Government of Azerbaijan, the forum, which has drawin a record number of participants, […]

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1.1 billion people live in slums. Can they be housed in dignity?

How can cities be made safer and more resilient, and how can housing be made more affordable? These are the questions under discussion at the thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13), which opened on Sunday. Over the past decade, many countries have made visible progress: around 160 countries have already adopted or are […]

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World Urban Forum opens in Baku as housing crisis and climate shocks intensify

The conference, organized by UN-Habitat together with Azerbaijan, will bring together world leaders, mayors, urban planning experts, as well as representatives of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organizations. An ambitious goal: housing the world The theme of the forum is a call to action: Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and […]

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Global energy and trade disruption pushing millions towards poverty

The warnings came during a special meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Friday focused on safeguarding energy and trade flows amid continuing volatility in global fuel markets, shipping routes and critical supply chains. “This is not only an energy challenge. It is a development challenge. It is a financing challenge,” ECOSOC […]

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Gaza reconstruction envisages building ‘islands’ out of rubble

Across the Gaza Strip, vast piles of debris scar the landscape. More than two years of war between Hamas fighters and Israel have left the enclave covered with nearly 57 million tonnes of shattered concrete and other rubble. With three quarters of Gaza’s built environment now destroyed, several reconstruction scenarios are under consideration. One of […]

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Afghanistan crisis deepens as record returns, drought and aid cuts strain economy

Estimates indicate that around 28 million people in Afghanistan were living in poverty in 2025, with the situation compounded by mass population returns, worsening drought and shrinking international aid. While Afghanistan recorded a second consecutive year of economic growth, real GDP expanded by just 1.9 per cent in 2025, down from 2.3 per cent the […]

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GDP up, satisfaction down: Why we need a new way to measure progress

Even people with no grounding or interest in business news will probably have heard of GDP which is frequently cited in mass media as the indicator of progress.  In simple terms, GDP is the sum of everything a country produces and sells, but economists have known for years that it is fails to paint a […]

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UN leads call to prepare ‘for when digital systems fail’

That’s the nightmare scenario that the UN is trying to avoid, in a call to all Member States to work together to avoid the cascading impacts of a “digital pandemic”. The risks to all of us are real and they have already been observed on Earth and in space, including a solar storm that narrowly […]

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Hormuz disruption deepens energy shock through vulnerable regions

Southeast Asia and South Asia were first to be impacted by the most severe energy crisis in a generation, said Dario Liguti from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), but he warned that “it is an unfolding energy crisis,” with motorists in Europe already bracing themselves every time they fill up the tank. Given […]

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AI in advertising risks fuelling misinformation crisis, UN warns

In a new brief titled Strengthening Information Integrity: Advertising, Artificial Intelligence and the Global Information Crisis, the Department of Global Communications and the Conscious Advertising Network caution that unchecked AI adoption in advertising is accelerating risks across the whole digital information ecosystem. The brief notes that the advertising industry sits at the centre of how […]

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