This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR Representative in South Sudan, Marie-Helene Verney – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at 12 September 2025 press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
South Sudan has been swept into a new cycle of severe flooding, just as renewed conflict threatens a fragile peace, leaving communities in some of the country’s most flood- and conflict-prone states exposed to a double crisis, warns UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
18 September 2025 —The water cycle has become increasingly erratic and extreme, swinging between deluge and drought, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It highlights the cascading impacts of too much or too little water on economies and society.
The State of Global Water Resources report says only about one-third of the global river basins had “normal” conditions in 2024. The rest were either above or below normal – the sixth consecutive year of clear imbalance.
2024 was the third straight year with widespread glacier loss across all regions.
LONDON, Sep 26 2025 (IPS)** ––As the high-level opening week of the UN General Assembly unfolds, with heads of states delivering often self-serving speeches from the UN’s podium, the organisation is undergoing one of its worst set of crises since its founding 80 years ago.
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A view of the podium and the United Nations emblem in the General Assembly Hall. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
This year’s General Assembly – ostensibly focused on development, human rights and peace – comes as wars are raging across multiple continents, climate targets are dangerously being missed and the institution designed to address these global challenges is being hollowed out by funding cuts and political withdrawals.
(UN News)* —The UN Secretary General on Friday []warned a high-level meeting in New York focused on ridding the world of nuclear weapons that the threat is only “accelerating and evolving”.
26 Septembermarks the International Day which highlights the ongoing scourge of the nuclear arms race – an opportunity for the international community to reaffirm its commitment to nuclear disarmament.
Pledges to disarm, however, have yet to be honoured.
Nuclear weapons continue to menace our world,” said the UN’s Chef de Cabinet Courtenay Rattray, delivering a statement on behalf of UN chief António Guterres: “And despite decades of promises, the threat is accelerating and evolving.”
24 September 2025 — Climate experts have found that countries are planning twice as much fossil fuel production as is compatible with global climate commitments.
The 2025 Production Gap Report, co-authored by the Stockholm Environment Institute, Climate Analytics, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, found that these plans put at risk the goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The experts analyzed 20 major fossil fuel-producing countries that together account for over 80 percent of global fossil fuel production.
PORTLAND, USA, Sep 23 2025 (IPS)** ––Despite anxieties, concerns, and warnings, androids or humanoid robots that rely on generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and advanced robotics are increasingly being integrated into the modern lives of human populations.
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As androids edge closer to reshaping how we work, interact, and manage conflict and resources, the absence of clear regulations leaves human rights, jobs, and social bonds unprotected. Credit: Shutterstock
This integration raises serious challenges regarding humanity’s future in an era where androids are emerging rapidly.
Some have expressed concerns that GAI and robots are embedding and intensifying existing societal biases, stereotypes, misogyny, and discrimination in the development of these new technologies.
Soon, androids are expected to change the nature of work, social interactions, conflict resolution, and resource management.
70% of minerals for renewables lies in Global South but the majority of profits are captured by the world’s richest
The vital transition from fossil fuels into renewable energy is being captured by super-rich polluters – individuals, companies and countries – reproducing colonial patterns that are entrenching inequalities and fueling human rights violations, says Oxfam’s new report “Unjust Transition: Reclaiming the Energy Future from Climate Colonialism”, published on 24 September 2025..Image from OXFAM International.
For example, Tesla, the firm owned by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, made $5.63bn from Electric Vehicles (EVs) sales in 2024.
For each EV, the company earned profits of $3,145 – 321 times more than the entire Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) got for supplying the 3Kg of cobalt in each car.
Nairobi, 23 September 2025 –Two years of escalating conflict have caused unprecedented levels of environmental damage in the Gaza Strip, damaging its soils, freshwater supplies and coastline, finds a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Sep 19 2025 (IPS)** –Thousands of Afghans who fled to the USA when the Taliban took over in August 2021 now face the prospect of deportation to countries they’ve never been to.
Credit: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters via Gallo Images
People who risked everything to escape persecution, often because they helped US forces, now find themselves treated as unwanted cargo under the Trump administration’s anti-migration policy.
Trump’s expanded deportation programme targets an estimated 10 million foreign-born people who live in the USA but lack proper legal documentation.
(UN News)* —The United Nations has sounded the alarm over Sudan’s spiralling crisis, warning that deadly attacks in El Fasher, the collapse of essential services, and mass displacement are pushing millions in Darfur and beyond closer to catastrophe.
According to local reports, heavy shelling and assaults late last week in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, killed at least six civilians and injured scores more, triggering fresh displacement from the already besieged city.