(UN News)* —The Golden Triangle – the remote, jungle-covered border region where Thailand, Myanmar, and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic meet – has seen an exponential surge in the illicit manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson | Organized crime gangs are operating in the Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos converge.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the production and trafficking of methamphetamine – an illegal synthetic stimulant – have risen sharply since 2021, particularly in Myanmar’s Shan State.
KUNENE REGION, Namibia, 27 May 2025 – Kuliua Maundu, 26, remembers the night seven years ago like it was yesterday. “I was at home when the pain started,” she said. “I thought it was just labour, so I tried to sleep, thinking I’d go to the hospital in the morning.”
(UN News)* — After another deadly weekend of Israeli attacks in Gaza, aid teams stressed once again on Monday that the “trickle” of supplies being allowed into the war-torn enclave will not halt famine.
LONDON, May 26 2025 (IPS)* – Israel’s ongoing war of annihilation in Gaza has wiped out hospitals, schools, homes, water, and food, reducing the Palestinian territory to a wasteland and leaving a death toll of more than 53,000 people. But an equally lethal campaign has been unleashed against the foundations of Palestinian society and identity.
A brutal military onslaught by Israel since October 2023 has destroyed hospitals, homes, food, water, and sanitation in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, with an estimated death toll of more than 53,000 people. Credit: Hosny Salah
()* — The UN already has a proven system to deliver assistance to people in Gaza and will not take part in any plan that does not uphold universally established humanitarian principles, a spokesperson for aid coordination office OCHA affirmed on Friday .
UN News | A young girl in Gaza trying to gather the remaining scraps of food from the cooking pot.
“There’s been so much time wasted talking about the various proposals and the various plans. In the meantime, people are dying and are left without aid,” Olga Cherevko said in an exclusive interview with UN News.
()* — The global drive for renewable energy technologies has sharply increased demand for so-called critical minerals, heightening the risk of crime, corruption, and instability across supply chains as organised crime groups infiltrate the mining industry.
(United Nations)* — As the global community is called to re-examine our relationship to the natural world, one thing is certain:
The unrestricted exploitation of wildlife has led to the disappearance of many animal species at an alarming rate, destroying Earth’s biological diversity and upsetting the ecological balance. PHOTO:Vladimir Wrangel/Adobe Stock
despite all our technological advances we are completely dependent on healthy and vibrant ecosystems for our water, food, medicines, clothes, fuel, shelter and energy, just to name a few.
Myanmar, 21 May 2025 – When a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar in late March of this year, 76-year-old Daw Khin Yee was at home with her daughter. In what felt like a split second, she was buried under the rubble, unable to move.
Daw Khin Yee and her grandchild are among many who survived the devastating Myanmar earthquake. Photo: IOM/Nang Seng Nang
In excruciating pain, Daw Khin remembers feeling bricks fall on her “like rain”. “I told my daughter, ‘You can’t get me out alone, you need help,’” she recounts. “There was a large stone above me, and I just prayed that it wouldn’t fall.”
(UN News)* — Millions of people in Syria continue to face mortal danger from unexploded munitions, disease and malnutrition and more international support is urgently required, senior UN aid officials said on Friday .
Wrapping up a visit to the country, Edem Wosornu, who heads operations and advocacy for the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said that she could “feel the momentum for change” on the ground after years of suffering and hardship under the Assad regime ended with its overthrow last December.
But formidable challenges remain as 16.5 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance and protection, andneeds are “staggering”.
(UN News)* — Women and clerical workers face the highest risk of their roles being radically transformed by Artificial Intelligence, prompting calls for inclusive policy responses.
One in four jobs worldwide is potentially exposed to what’s known as Generative Artificial Intelligence – or Generative AI (GenAI) – according to a new joint study from the UN labour agency (ILO) and Poland’s National Research Institute.
The study finds that transforming job descriptions, not widespread job loss, is the more likely result.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 