United Nations news headlines

A furious diplomatic spat between Israel and the United Nations is escalating, with Israeli officials calling for the resignation of Secretary General Antonio Guterres after he said Hamas' October 7 attacks on the country "did not happen in a vacuum."

It comes as Israeli airstrikes on the besieged strip reportedly killed more than 700 people in a day.

United Nations chief warned at a high-level meeting that the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour, with the risk of the Gaza war spreading through the region increasing.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has opened, allowing desperately needed aid to flow to civilians running short of food, medicine, water.

The United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, publicly criticised Israel's evacuation order, suggesting that it was completely unviable.

Ukrainian air strikes inflicted damage on a Russian naval headquarters in the Black Sea.

He dismissed a peace deal with Ukraine as "not feasible", and labeled the West an "empire of lies".

Some of the world's biggest polluters have been deliberately left off the speaking list at a major summit.

Before Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his claims, Joe Biden warned no nation can be secure if "we allow Ukraine to be carved up".

UNESCO has a list of 55 places around the world it considers most in danger, including on our very own doorstep.

Two people were killed and their daughter was injured in the blast before dawn on Monday.

Retired baker and father of two Chau Van Kham was arrested in 2019 when he travelled to Vietnam and accused of terrorism.

The specialised United Nations agency's announcement followed the same call from American meteorologists. The Bureau of Meteorology is yet to follow suit.

Famagusta was once home to the biggest tourist hotspot in Cyprus, but now it's a derelict and abandoned ghost town, holding remnants of a painful past that the island is still struggling to forget.

Australia could soon see a repeat of the conditions that sparked 2019-20's devastating bushfire season, as our planet is almost certain to set a new hottest year on record in the next half-decade.

The warning came as Western and Asian nations raced to mount rapid evacuation efforts.

Sudan's warring generals have pledged to observe a new three-day truce brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia in an attempt to pull Africa's third-largest nation back from the abyss.

Droughts, floods and record low ice levels - from the top of the world's mountains to the depths of the ocean, the climate crisis took a heavy toll in 2022.

Thirty years ago the ADF was deployed to one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Economists have cautioned that even as India's economy is among the fastest-growing as its population rises, joblessness has also swelled.

Submerged indigenous cultural sites and shipwrecks are at risk, MPs have warned.

Humanity still has a chance, close to the last one, to prevent the worst of climate change's future harms, a top United Nations panel of scientists says.

The damning report is a highly unusual condemnation of a member of the UN Security Council.

For the first time, United Nations members have agreed on a unified treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas — nearly half the planet's surface — concluding two weeks of talks in New York.

The death toll is now approaching 25,000, with an Australian woman who has not been named, confirmed to be the third Aussie killed in the tragedy.

The most significant part of the agreement is a commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030.

The humble baguette — the crunchy ambassador for French baking around the world — is being added to the United Nation's list of intangible cultural heritage.

A United Nations-backed delegation has recommended the Great Barrier Reef be listed as "in danger", citing serious risks from climate change and water quality.

Ukraine says it will investigate video footage circulated on Russian social media which allegedly shows Ukrainian forces killed Russian troops who may have been trying to surrender.

Today marks the day when the world's population will tick over to 8 billion, according to the United Nations.

Australia will bid to host the world's biggest conference on climate change in 2026, the government has announced.

Russia announced it will immediately suspend its implementation of a UN-brokered grain deal.

"The report confirms the utterly glacial pace of climate action, despite the looming precipice of climate tipping points we're approaching."

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn Russia's "attempted illegal annexation" of four Ukrainian regions and demand its immediate reversal.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi called it a "deeply worrying development", on an eventful day in the war in Ukraine.

United Nations experts have said that Russian forces committed war crimes during the conflict in Ukraine, including cases of rape and torture of children.

Not only did Penny Wong condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine but she will alert the significant impacts of a war in our own region.

Ukraine's president has implored the world to punish Russia for its invasion following Moscow's decision to redouble its war effort.

The US president says reports of Russian abuses against civilians in Ukraine "should make your blood run cold".

Rich economies should hit oil and gas companies with new windfall taxes to provide help for countries suffering from climate change, UN Secretary General says.

When Zumret Dawut heard that the United Nations had declared that China's crackdown in its far-western Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, she burst into tears.

China's top UN envoy said Beijing remains "firmly opposed" to the release of a long-anticipated report about Xinjiang from the office of UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.

A United Nations team has set off on an urgent mission to safeguard the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant in Ukraine.

Severe rains and flooding have killed at least 1,033 people, including 348 children, and left 1,527 more injured as the "worst humanitarian disaster of this decade" ravages Pakistan.

Fears about the security of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have been growing since Russian forces seized the site, but reached an inflection point on Friday.

The nuclear plant was struck by shelling, triggering the shutdown of one of the reactors and signalling the "real risk of a nuclear disaster".

The United Nations nuclear chief has warned that Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine "is completely out of control".

The United Nations chief warned that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation”.

Myanmar's government announced on Monday it had carried out its first executions in nearly 50 years, hanging a former National League for Democracy lawmaker, a democracy activist and two men accused of violence after the country's takeover by the military last year.

The World Health Organisation said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an "extraordinary" situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.