If you’ve been following the global conversation around plastic pollution, you’ve probably heard of microplastics. These small particles have turned up everywhere from the depths of the ocean to the top of Mount Everest and even throughout the human body.
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Credit: dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP/Bernd Wustneck
But what exactly are microplastics, why are they concerning and what can the world do about them? Read on to find out.
Fisheries provide a vital source of food, employment, recreation, trade and economic well-being for people throughout the world. In a world of growing population and persistent hunger, fish has emerged as an important commodity for the achievement of food security.
However, efforts by the international community to ensure the sustainability of fisheries are being seriously compromised by illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.
(UN News)* —The United Nations paid tribute on Thursday to the 168 staff members who lost their lives in 2024. They include 126 personnel killed in Gaza, all but one of whom served with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA.
Ahead of a memorial service at Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General António Guterrestold journalists that the men and women being honoured “were not just names on a list” but “extraordinary individuals – each one a story of courage, compassion, and service.”
(UN News)* — The lack of food entering Gaza caused by ongoing Israeli aid restrictions is leaving increasing numbers of Palestinians “vulnerable to starvation”, with daily energy intake now well below what a human body needs to survive, the UN warned on Thursday .
NICE, France, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)** – As David Attenborough reflects in his new documentary Ocean, “After living for nearly 100 years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea”.
Credit: NOAA Photo Library
The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3), scheduled to take place in Nice, France from 9-13 June, will bring together Heads of State, scientists, civil society and business leaders around a single goal: to halt the silent collapse of the planet’s largest – and arguably most vital – ecosystem.
(UN News)* —As coral reefs bleach, fish stocks collapse, and sea temperatures break records, world leaders are heading to the French Riviera — not for leisure, but for one of the most urgent diplomatic gatherings of the year.
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5 2025 (IPS)* – A particularly virulent outbreak of cholera was detected in the Khartoum State of Sudan and is a direct result of the Sudanese Civil War, warns the United Nations.
UNICEF’S cholera response in Sudan. A doctor mixes an oral rehydration solution, which treats cholera. Credit: UNICEF/Ahmed Mohamdeen Elfatih
“The resurgence of cholera is more than a public health emergency – it is a symptom of deep, persistent inequality. Cholera takes hold where poverty is entrenched, where healthcare is scarce, and where conflict has shattered the systems that keep children safe…”
(UN News)* — Dozens of bodies have been discovered at official and unofficial detention sites in Libya. The grim findings confirm deep concerns about abuse and torture at the facilities, according to the UN human rights chief Volker Türk.
“Our worst held fears are being confirmed: dozens of bodies have been discovered at these sites, along with the discovery of suspected instruments of torture and abuse, and potential evidence of extrajudicial killings,” Türk said.
(UN News)* —A draft resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza failed to pass in the UN Security Council on Wednesday after the United States cast its veto – blocking the initiative backed by all ten elected members of the Council.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | UN Security Council members voting in favour of the draft resolution.
The text, co-sponsored by Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Somalia – collectively known as the E-10 – received 14 votes in favour, with the US casting the lone vote against.
(UN News)* —Haiti has been gripped by spiralling gang violence ever since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The subsequent unrest has displaced one million people, more than half of them children, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 21 May that widespread armed violence continues to expose Haitian children to widespread sexual abuse, exploitation and recruitment by the gangs which now control whole swathes of the country.
Credit: dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP/Bernd Wustneck
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 