Week in Review

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Week in Review 14 June 2025
Catch up on this week's must-read stories

The UN Security Council met in emergency session over the strikes and counterstrikes that are ratcheting up between Iran and Israel on Friday, while on Gaza, it was the larger but nominally less powerful General Assembly which took centre stage on Thursday.

Just 12 countries, including Israel and the US, voted against a wide-ranging resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, hostage returns, and resumption of lifesaving aid to the two million Gazans, many of whom are on the brink of starvation. We covered it all live, bringing you full details of the debate in the face of stalemate on the council.

Beyond multilateralism in crisis mode, UN News was on the ground – and on the water – in the French Riviera city of Nice for the ocean conference, bringing you a raft of fascinating feature stories alongside our unparalleled coverage of the sweeping political decisions being made on the floor. 

We had some notable interviews on the page this week, from the latest on Syria's returnees and the trafficking of persons with disabilities, to why 'decent work' will help end child labour. 

We had the latest on Yemen's long running conflict, Iraq's efforts to boost democracy, Sudan's intense and brutal war between rival militaries – and the rise in famine conditions across impoverished and war-ravaged South Sudan. 

This editor's favourite story of the week featured the extraordinary tale of Jean-Yves Carval, who's convinced that lowly plankton which underpins all live at sea and on land, could hold to key to Earth's very survival. If their decline can be arrested in a warming world - so can humankind's.

 

A wide view of the Security Council meeting on the rapidly esclating crisis in the Middle East.
Security Council meets in emergency session over Iran-Israel conflict, amid strikes and counterstrikes

Israel's strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities mark a dangerous new escalation in the Middle East, a top UN official told the Security Council during an emergency session convened on Friday.

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Peace and Security
Jean-Yves Carval (left), captain of the Sagitta III, and his chief mechanic, Christophe Kieger, fish zooplankton with a special net.
Drifting architects: Plankton, climate, and the race to understand our changing ocean

They drift unseen, but everything depends on them. Plankton the ocean's lifeblood – regulate the climate, feed the seas, and shape life on Earth. Scientists along the French Riviera are in a race against time to unlock the mysteries of these tiny organisms before their decline reverberates across the planet.

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Climate and Environment
A displaced family leaves the eastern area of Deir Albalah after Israeli authorities issued an evacuation order for the area.
GAZA LIVE: UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopts resolution demanding immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire

The General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution on Thursday demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and resumption of humanitarian aid to stave off famine. There were 149 votes in favour, 12 against – including Israel and the US – and 19 abstentions. App users can follow our live coverage here.

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Peace and Security
A report launched at the Third UN Ocean Conference, in Nice, shows that 35 per cent of the global fish stocks are being harvested unsustainably.
'Plenty of fish in the sea'? Not anymore, say UN experts in Nice

At the Third UN Ocean Conference in Nice, the "catch of the day" wasn't a seabass or a red mullet – it was a figure: 35 per cent. That's the share of global fish stocks now being harvested unsustainably, according to a new UN report released Wednesday.

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Climate and Environment
The accumulation of waste in Gaza is posing significant health threats.
Humanitarians must be able to deliver aid in Gaza, UN agencies insist

UN agencies on Friday continue to stress they must be allowed to deliver aid in the Gaza Strip as famine looms and a telecommunications blackout threatens lifesaving operations. 

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Humanitarian Aid
Ahmedabad, in western India, is the largest city in the state of Gujarat.
UN chief 'deeply saddened' as Air India crash claims lives of over 200 on board

A London-bound Air India jet carrying 242 people crashed moments after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday, reportedly killing more than 200 on board, with dozens still unaccounted for.

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Peace and Security
An estimated 18 to 20 per cent of global plastic waste ends up in the ocean.
Global push to end plastic pollution gains ground in Nice

Behind closed doors, in a domed conference pavilion steps away from the historic port of Nice, more than 40 ministers gathered on Tuesday to tackle one of the planet's fastest-growing environmental threats: plastic pollution. 

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Climate and Environment
Fishermen in Grenada.
'No Ocean Declaration without small islands': Delegates push for inclusion as UN summit nears end

With one day remaining before the conclusion of the Third UN Ocean Conference, delegates in Nice are preparing for the adoption of the summit's eagerly anticipated political declaration. Small island developing States, facing the direct effects of climate change and marine resource decline, are pushing to ensure their perspectives are reflected in global ocean policy.

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Climate and Environment
A woman collects water at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Yemen.
Yemen at breaking point as UN envoy urges action to end suffering

Yemen cannot endure more years of division, economic collapse and human suffering, the UN's top official on the crisis told the Security Council on Thursday, warning that "time is not on our side."

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Humanitarian Aid
The issue of missing persons in Syria is one of the most prominent humanitarian challenges resulting from years of conflict.
Decades of memories and loss – searching for the missing in Syria

Tens of thousands of people went missing in Syria over the past 50 years including during 14 years of civil war. Now, some families are able to live in hope as the Middle Eastern country emerges from the traumatic period of dictatorship and conflict.

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Human Rights
A woman holds her malnourished child at a displaced site in Gedaref, Sudan.
Displacement doubles while funding shrinks, warns UNHCR

With 13.5 million people displaced by over 13 years of brutal civil conflict, Syria used to represent the largest displacement crisis in the world. This is no longer the case.

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Migrants and Refugees
A young girl with  polio works in a mine in Anosy, Madagascar.
The world pledged to end child labour by 2025: So why are 138 million kids still working?

Twelve-year-old Tenasoa crawls to work every day at a mine in eastern Madagascar where she collects two kilos of the shiny mineral mica each day. She cannot walk because of a physical disability.

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Human Rights
Céline Schmitt, Head of External Engagement, Communications and Spokesperson for UNHCR in Syria.
Hopeful Syrians head home to an uncertain future

Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, 1.9 million Syrian refugees have headed home to Syria. After 14 years of civil war, much of the country is in ruins, while over 90 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Yet, Syrian refugees are not losing hope: UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has found that more than 80 per cent of the diaspora hope to return one day, a major shift compared to surveys conducted before the fall of the old regime.  

There are more than six million Syrian refugees, and over seven million are internally displaced. UNHCR is committed to helping all those who want to return home.

UN News' Emma Trager-Lewis spoke to agency spokesperson in Syria Céline Schmitt, who's just returned from a field visit to Dara'a, birthplace of the Syrian revolution in 2011. 

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UN Interviews
Eric Rosenthal, Founder and Executive Director of Disability Rights International
The vulnerable and forgotten: trafficked persons with disabilities

Persons with disabilities living in institutions face a heightened risk of being trafficked as their reliance on others for daily support can be manipulated; that's according to an expert in disability rights speaking at the United Nations.

Eric Rosenthal leads Disability Rights International. He told a side event at COSP, the UN's largest annual meeting focusing on issues that persons living with disabilities face, that people isolated from their families are easier targets for exploitation.  

The number of trafficking victims of all types has seen a troubling rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 25 per cent increase in global detections between 2019 and 2022.

UN News' Anna O'Donnell sat down with Mr. Rosenthal and began by asking him to explain why people with disabilities are being trafficked. 

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UN Interviews
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