'Unseen' News and Views
When the United Nations Environment Assembly convenes in December, a key topic up for discussion will be the mounting environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Ahead of those talks, here’s a look back a story first published on 21 September 2024.
(UN News)* — Nearly a year on from the fall of Assad, Syrians still lack many basic necessities as the transitional government works to shore up the economy and build social cohesion.
Humanitarian conditions are “extremely serious,” UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi told the Security Council on Wednesday [].
There are over 16 million people in need of aid with hundreds of thousands displaced, according to the UN humanitarian coordination office (OCHA).
(UN News)* — When Salma* was just 15, she was forced to get married, even though she wanted to stay in school and become a doctor someday.
(UN News)* — Ending hunger by 2030 would cost just $93 billion a year — less than one per cent of the $21.9 trillion spent on military budgets over the past decade, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
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17 November 2025 — Methane might only stay in the atmosphere for a short time, but its impact is powerful—and cutting it is one of the quickest ways to slow global warming.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s An Eye on Methane: From measurement to momentum report shows how credible, real-world data is reshaping what governments and companies can do right now.
Meanwhile, the EU rolls back and weakens its sustainability and green rules
17 November 2025 — New Oxfam, Fair Finance International and 11.11.11. report exposes how Europe’s banks and investors are blindly investing in mining companies linked to land grabs, pollution and human rights violations.
This comes ahead of the EU’s Raw Materials Week.
The report, “Financing Critical Minerals but Failing Critical Safeguards”, finds that Europe’s drive to secure critical raw materials needed for the green transition inadvertently fuels human rights abuses and environmental harm.
(UN News)* — In Somalia, where six out of ten births take place without a doctor, childbirth is often a matter of survival.
© UNFPA/Usame Nur Hussein | A patient recovering from fistula repair surgery is examined at Dayniile Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.
For women like 38-year-old Farhiya from rural Beletweyne, the consequences can be devastating — a painful obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal that left her incontinent, isolated, and cut off from her community.
“I was stressed, constantly worried, and isolated from my community. I was living in my house as if I had some sort of contagious disease,” she said.
In Somalia, 6 out of 10 births occur without a doctor present, which often leads to childbirth complications like obstetric fistula.
Family agriculture and land defenders in Colombia. Credit: Both Nomads/Forus
“Speak out, and you’ll pay for it”
No matter what lies ahead, we will always rely on sanitation to protect us from diseases and keep our environment clean.
Today, billions of people still live without a safe toilet — with the poorest, especially women and girls, worst affected.
As time goes by, the pressure on sanitation is only increasing. Across the world, ageing infrastructure is failing. Investment hasn’t kept pace with demand.
And climate change is reshaping our world – with glaciers melting, weather worsening, and sea levels rising.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 