An unusually powerful El Niño is rapidly strengthening across the Pacific, setting up a period of heightened drought, flood, heat and food-security risks that could intensify through the end of 2026 and reverberate across the global economy well into 2027. The World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that El Niño is
An African-led campaign is challenging the widespread use of the Mercator projection, arguing that maps should more accurately reflect the relative size of countries and continents. The world map familiar to generations of students is facing renewed scrutiny. The United Nations General Assembly is considering an African-led resolution Friday calling
As global supply chains, energy systems and capital flows are reordered, Unstoppable Africa 2026 is advancing a sharper proposition: Africa’s next economic chapter will be defined not simply by growth, but by who owns, finances and captures its value. NEW YORK — Africa no longer needs to make the case
UNCCD COP17 elevated land restoration, drought resilience and rangelands as economic priorities. But the failure to agree on a global drought framework means the biggest political test now shifts toward COP18 in Egypt. ULAANBAATAR — The most consequential outcome of UNCCD COP17 may be a shift in how governments think
Rodrigues-Birkett has moved into first place, Grynspan has slipped and Otunnu is gaining. But the second Security Council poll points to a deeper shift: the Council is moving further from consensus. UNITED NATIONS — The second UN Secretary-General poll in the race to succeed António Guterres has reshuffled the leaderboard
Conflicts are increasingly disrupting the shipping lanes, grain routes, energy supplies and fertilizer markets that underpin global food security, exposing countries far beyond the battlefield. NEW YORK — The geography of conflict is increasingly becoming the geography of food security. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week that the global
UNITED NATIONS — The race to become the next United Nations Secretary-General has a new entrant. Ivonne A-Baki, the veteran Ecuadorian diplomat nominated by the Kingdom of Tonga, has become the eighth candidate seeking to succeed António Guterres, adding a prominent new voice to a contest that remains unsettled after
ULAANBAATAR: UNCCD COP17 has opened in Mongolia with a more consequential mandate than its relatively low global profile suggests: turn land restoration and drought commitments into finance, resilience and implementation. Running from August 17 to 28 under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.”, COP17 brings together the Convention’s 197 Parties
NEW YORK — More than 600 young people from around the world gathered at United Nations Headquarters this week to press for a greater role in shaping artificial intelligence governance, as governments confront how AI could transform jobs, education, inequality and economic competitiveness. The Youth and AI Summit, held on
A new UN negotiating document has revived efforts to secure the world’s first legally binding treaty on plastic pollution — but governments remain divided over how far the agreement should reach, particularly whether it should address plastic production itself or focus more heavily on product design, circularity and waste management.
