UN Interviews

Sustainability in the kitchen is increasingly seen not just as a trend, but as a necessity shaped by economic pressures and changing consumer expectations. Chef Jaume Biarnés, a former member of the world-renowned El Bulli restaurant team in Spain, and now Director of the Yondu Culinary Studio in New York, believes that sustainability is integral to modern cooking He told Liudmila Blagonravova fro...

Hate speech is an unavoidable menace today – particularly so for women and girls – on and offline.  The abuse they face is increasingly fuelled by so-called “manosphere” online influencers. Their posts primarily target young men and boys to promote a warped view of masculinity, usually by promoting rigid gender roles and misogyny. To mark the International Day for Countering Hate Speech on 18...

Since its launch in March 2025, the UN80 initiative has moved into a decisive phase. Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy, joins UN News's Laura Quinones to discuss what has changed, what results are already emerging, and how the United Nations is working to become more effective at a time of growing financial and political pressure.

In Lebanon, UN teams and partners are dealing with a country in flames as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) appealed on Wednesday for a “sustained cessation of hostilities”. As thousands of families continue to be displaced and uprooted by the violence between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli military since March, UN News’s Daniel Johnson discussed the impact on children with Marcoluigi...

Global cooperation is essential as criminal networks become more complex, sophisticated and interconnected, according to the new Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the UN Office at Vienna, Monica Juma, who took office last month. Speaking to UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri, the former Kenyan national security adviser said no single country,...

Four months of escalating violence and displacement in Lebanon are having a severe impact on women and girls. According to the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, more than 1.4 million people are now displaced across the country – over 20 per cent of the population – including an estimated 16,000 pregnant women. Meanwhile, damage to health facilities is limiting access to essential maternal and...

Funding cuts to health programmes are directly affecting women and girls in Yemen, according to the country head of the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA). Francesco Galtieri has been visiting UN Headquarters in New York this week to plead the case for more funds, in a country where more than 60 per cent of health infrastructure has been destroyed during well over a decade of brutal...

Human rights are "part of our DNA," according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who is championing a new  Global Alliance at a time of rising conflicts, growing inequalities and mounting climate pressures. The initiative aims to bring together governments, civil society, businesses, academics and communities to place human rights at the centre of decision-making ahead of t...

Security personnel supporting UN operations in South Ukraine are navigating rapidly shifting frontlines and difficult choices to help humanitarians reach communities affected by the war – all while balancing operational risks with urgent needs on the ground. Olga Scripovscaia, Area Security Adviser with the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) based in Odesa, told UN News in an exclusive i...

Health workers responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are working closely with local communities, recognising that trust is as critical as testing and treatment, to stop the disease in its tracks. Dr Marie-Roseline Belizaire, Africa’s Emergencies Director for the World Health Organization (WHO) told UN News in an exclusive interview this week that response teams a...

Major Abhilasha Barak, an Indian peacekeeper serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), has been named this year’s Military Gender Advocate of the Year. She was recognised for her outstanding leadership in promoting gender-responsive peacekeeping and advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda during her deployment with the frontline mission since June 2025 – which has s...

Children in Ukraine have spent years living with air raid sirens, disrupted education and the daily uncertainty of war. Many are forced to learn online or in underground classrooms as communities adapt to the realities of a prolonged conflict. During recent visits to Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the UN’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Vanessa Frazier, met children,...

Each year, 52 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean, contributing to an estimated 24 trillion microplastic particles, which have a devastating impact on the marine environment. They do not fully biodegrade, lingering indefinitely while causing deadly wildlife entanglement, toxic ingestion, and habitat destruction. Plastics also release harmful chemicals into the water, introduc...

Science Forward, the podcast of the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board, features world-leading scientists, and explores today’s challenges, from AI and biotechnology to climate and health. In the very first episode of Science Forward, Board member Yoshua Bengio and AI policy expert Charlotte Stix unpack the growing risks of deceptive AI with hosts Julia Bhattacharjee and Adam Day, to...

Over the weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As of Saturday, 16 May, health authorities had recorded eight laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in Ituri province in eastern DRC. Uganda als...

It’s hard to come up with new ways to describe the massive humanitarian emergency that is still unfolding in Sudan because of the war. A staggering 33 million people need help and later today, UN-backed food insecurity experts are expected to warn once again that hunger is on the rise again and famine is a real risk in 14 areas of the devastated country. Although it is extremely difficult and dang...

Eighty years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, artist Sandy Walker believes art still has the power to transform people’s perceptions.  Speaking to UN News at United Nations Headquarters, Mr. Walker reflected on the influence of Hiroshima survivor and writer Tamiki Hara, whose final work, My Deepest Desire, inspired a series of ink drawings that now accompany a new edition of the te...

The United Nations Victims’ Rights Advocate , Najla Nassif Palma, has urged survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel to “come forward”, while calling for stronger action across the UN system and for Member States to put victims’ rights first. Her office works to ensure victims “have a voice, assistance and justice”. The mandate was established by Secretary-General António Guterre...

World Press Freedom Day, officially observed on Sunday, arrives this year under the theme Shaping a Future at Peace, a message that feels especially urgent as the number of journalists killed in conflict zones continues to rise. According to the UN education and culture organization, UNESCO, which monitors press freedom, 93 journalists were killed in 2025 alone – 60 of them in conflict zones....

NASA aerospace engineer Alinda Mashiku was born in New York then moved to Tanzania as a young girl, where she dreamed of becoming an astronaut – but reaching for the stars seemed almost an impossibility.  Today, as a Program Manager with the US space agency, she helps ensure that satellites avoid collisions in orbit, contributing to the safety and sustainability of pioneering space missions s...

As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock highlights a striking gap in its leadership: the continued absence of a woman Secretary-General. For an institution founded on principles of equality, human rights, and inclusion, this omission is becoming harder to defend. Ms. Baerbock argues that the issue is not merely symbolic, but central to the UN’...

Afghanistan is seeing a sharp rise in refugees heading home, with more than 2.8 million people coming back from Iran and Pakistan in 2025 alone, according to UN estimates. That brings the total number of returnees since September 2023 to over three million. The surge has seen the population rise by more than 10 per cent, adding pressure to already limited infrastructure and fragile public services...

Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific island nation, is on the frontline of the climate crisis, with rising sea levels threatening to submerge much of its territory by the end of the century. Many of its citizens are already planning for an uncertain future. In 2025, more than 90 per cent applied for a visa pathway offering residency in Australia.  Earlier, in 2022, the government launched a “digital n...

Unless a solution can be found immediately to allow fertilizers through the Strait of Hormuz in time for planting season, there’s going to be a “very significant and severe” food crisis which will hit the poorest countries and their citizens hardest. That’s according to Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which provides infrast...

Since the outbreak of the Middle East war on 28 February, sites of major cultural importance across Israel, Iran and Lebanon have come under threat. At the request of the Lebanese Government, the UN education and cultural agency, UNESCO, has placed 39 World Heritage sites under so-called “enhanced protection”- a special status aimed at safeguarding cultural heritage during times of conflict. To ex...