UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 2025 (IPS)* –The US hostility towards the UN is threatening to escalate, as a cash-starved world body is struggling for economic survival.
Addressing the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee last week. Ambassador Jeff Bartos, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform said: “President Trump is absolutely right – the United Nations can be an important institution for solving international challenges, but it has strayed far from its original purpose”.
“Over 80 years, the UN has grown bloated, unfocused, too often ineffective, and sometimes even part of the problem. The UN’s failure to deliver on its core mandates is alarming and undeniable.“
(UN News)* — The United Nations faces a “race to bankruptcy” unless Member States pay their dues in full and on time, Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Friday [], presenting a sharply reduced $3.238 billion regular budget for 2026.
UN News/Vibhu Mishra | The Secretariat building with flags of Member States in the foreground, at UN Headquarters, in New York.
(UN News)* — Up to 500,000 illegal weapons ranging from handguns to battlefield-grade semi-automatic rifles are thought to be in the hands of gangs in Haiti, even though the Caribbean country has been under a UN arms embargo for the last three years.
Giles Clarke | Gang members brandish their weapons in the Delmas 3 neighbourhood of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
Haiti is facing an acute security crisis as rival gangs fight for control of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas while terrorizing local communities through extortion, sexual violence, kidnap for ransom and murder.
15 October 2025 —Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere soared by a record amount to new highs in 2024, committing the planet to more long-term temperature increase, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
(UN News)* —Nearly 80 per cent of the world’s poor – 887 million people – live in regions that are exposed to extreme heat, flooding and other climate hazards, highlighting the urgent need for global action to address the issue.
That’s according to a report released on Friday [17 October 2025] by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford University ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil next month.
By overlaying climate hazard data with multidimensional poverty data for the first time, it reveals how the climate crisis is reshaping global poverty.
(UN News)* — The UN relief chief on Wednesday [] urged Israel and Hamas to honour their agreement to return deceased hostages and allow aid at scale into Gaza, warning that it should not be used as “a bargaining chip” amid reports of new civilian killings and extrajudicial executions.
In a statement on Wednesday, Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said that two days after world leaders gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh to endorse the US-led peace initiative, “this is a moment of great but precarious hope.”
“It is also clear from the public response to the progress, that Palestinians, Israelis and people across the region want this peace to take hold,” Mr. Fletcher said.
(UN News)* —More than eight per cent of the world population or around 673 million people are not getting enough to eat and going hungry, according to the UN.
Conflict, climate change and inequality are all playing a role, but there are other reasons for what is known rather dryly as “food insecurity.”
Ahead of World Food Day on 16 October, here are five things you need to know about why even though there’s enough food to feed the global population of over eight billion – people still go hungry.
Armed conflicts, such as those in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza, disrupt food production, supply chains, and access to markets. This leads to the displacement of people, creating acute food insecurity for millions.
Rivers cut by dams, farmland expansion and urban growth are putting food, water, biodiversity and livelihoods at risk unless urgent action is taken.
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Bonn/Abu Dhabi, 11 October 2025 – Nearly one-third of the Earth’s land surface has already been profoundly transformed by human activity, leaving ecosystems degraded and fragmented, according to the Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Ecological Connectivity and Land Restoration, launched on 11 October 202 at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi.
(UN News)* — Millions of Haitians are facing food insecurity as armed groups continue to expand their territorial control around the country, the latest internationally-recognised IPC hunger report found.
In its recent analysis, the IPC, a UN-backed index measuring hunger and malnutrition in global hotspots, found that 5.7 million Haitians are facing a deteriorating food security situation.
The study provides an analysis for the period of September 2025 until February 2026 and a projection for March until June of next year.
(UN News)* — As displaced Gazans jammed the main route leading north on Friday [] after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas reportedly came into effect, UN aid teams repeated their call to open all crossings into the devastated enclave to prevent famine spreading.
UN News | Thousands of people in Gaza are on the move following the ceasefire deal.
“There is little information available on the details or how the agreement will be implemented. However, we call for all crossings into Gaza to be open immediately so that humanitarian supplies can flow into the war-torn enclave,” said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 