(UN News)* — With nearly $1.6 billion in unpaid dues, the UN Secretary-General warned on Monday [] that chronic late payments are hampering the world body’s ability to function, even as sweeping cuts move forward through the General Assembly’s main budget committee.
António Guterres told the Fifth Committee the UN is facing its most fragile cash position in years, despite sharp reductions already built into next year’s budget plans.
UN News/Vibhu Mishra | The United Nations Headquarters as seen from First Avenue in New York City.
MANILA, Philippines, Nov 11 2025 (IPS)* –US President Trump’s economic strategy for his second term aims to get the rest of the world, especially its wealthy allies with greater means, to pay more to help strengthen the US economy.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Recent US initiatives have undoubtedly accelerated de-dollarisation but these have largely been unavoidable consequences of its own actions rather than due to any conspiracy by others to that end.
De-dollarisation distraction
Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff recently observed, “We are absolutely at the biggest inflection point in the global currency system since the Nixon shock to end the last vestige of the gold standard.”
After the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the gold price was set at $35 per ounce. In August 1971, US President Richard Nixon ended this gold-dollar parity.
(UN News)* —A record seizure of cocaine off the coast of Haiti has underlined the island nation’s “pivotal role in trafficking routes linking South America, the Caribbean and the United States of America,” according to the United Nations.
AUDIO AND SUBSCRIPTION
UN Photo/Victoria Hazou | A package of cocaine seized in Haiti is put on show. (file)
Haiti is in the grip of a security crisis as gangs battle for control of territory in the capital and beyond while continuing to expand their criminal activities.
(UN News)*– The humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s El Fasher remains dire as mass displacement accelerates and aid access stays restricted, amid warnings of widespread trafficking, sexual violence and the recruitment of children.
UN agencies say conditions are deteriorating further across North Darfur and neighbouring Kordofan, while independent human rights experts on Thursday warned that the collapse of protection following the city’s fall has sharply increased the risks facing women and children.
A young visitor signs a panel at Geneva’s Palais des Nations to support the “50 for Freedom” campaign, which urges global ratification of the ILO’s Protocol on Forced Labour to help end modern slavery affecting 21 million people worldwide.PHOTO:UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré
Latest estimates by the International Labour Organisation(ILO) show that forced labour and forced marriage have increased significantly in the last five years.
10 million more people were in modern slavery in 2021 compared to 2016 global estimates, bringing the total to 50 million worldwide. Women and children remain disproportionately vulnerable.
Geneva, 24 November 2025 – The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched Anyone a Victim, a global campaign that calls for stronger action to prevent human trafficking and expand support for survivors.
The “Anyone a Victim” campaign brings survivor stories to the forefront, encouraging global support for efforts that help people regain safety and rebuild their lives. Photo: Peter Bateman
Donors provided lowest aid funding ever in 2025, since country created in 2011.
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Nadia Zahad, a refugee from the Sudan war stands outside her makeshift home in Renk, South Sudan. (Photo: Herison Philip Osfaldo/Oxfam)
Almost 6 million people – nearly half of the population – in South Sudan are experiencing acute hunger, with little access to clean water or sanitation as funding cuts have stripped away vital humanitarian support just as it is needed the most, Oxfam on 26 November warned.
(UN News)* —The UN human rights office, OHCHR said on Friday [] that it was “appalled” by the “brazen killing” of two Palestinian men by Israeli border police in the West Bank, describing it as “an apparent summary execution.
The shooting occurred on Thursday [] in Jenin and was apparently caught on film by a TV channel, OHCHR Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told journalists in Geneva.
(Bangkok) – The Cambodian government is failing to provide support to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers with microfinance debts who returned from Thailandbecause of hostilities in mid-2025,Human Rights Watch on 25 November 2025 said.
(UN News)* — Soaring inflation, fragile job markets and shrinking access to healthcare and education are pushing millions of people in South and South-East Asia onto risky migration paths, the UN human rights office said on Thursday [], as regional migration reaches historic highs.
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Photo: ILO | Migrant workers onboard a fishing vessel. While they make an enormous development contribution to both their countries of origin and destination, many migrant workers suffer human and labour rights violations. (file photo)
The office said people across the region are migrating “not by choice, but out of necessity,” driven by the systemic deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights at home.
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Poverty, unemployment, weak public services and climate stress are eroding livelihoods and leaving millions with few alternatives but to leave.
UN News/Vibhu Mishra | The United Nations Headquarters as seen from First Avenue in New York City.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 