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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that it had begun administering Ebola vaccines to people in eastern Congo. WHO said in a statement that people most at-risk for contracting the disease would be vaccinated first, The Associated Press reported. About 200 doses were sent to Beni, a region that was particularly hard-hit by the outbreak from 2018-2020 and where a case of Ebola was identified last week. About 1,000 doses were also sent to Goma, Congo’s North Kivu province's capital city, according to the AP. Last week, a toddler died from the disease, and his family is expected...

Matt Hancock made a surprise comeback last night as he was given a United Nations role just four months after resigning as health secretary. The former Cabinet minister will advise African nations on how their economies can bounce back from the pandemic. The Daily Mail understands he won the unpaid job thanks to Nimko Ali, a campaigner against female genital mutilation who is a close friend of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie. Mr. Hancock, who will remain a MP, was forced to resign as health secretary in June after he breached social distancing guidance by kissing a colleague. CCTV...

ABOARD GEO BARENTS (AP) — Libya’s rival sides reached an initial agreement Friday on the withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries from the North African nation, the United Nations said, a key step toward unifying the warring sides in violence-wracked country... ...The U.N. mission mediating between the rivals said a 10-member joint military commission, with five representatives from each side, inked a “gradual and balanced” withdrawal deal Friday, at the end of three-day, U.N.-facilitated talks in Geneva...

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday silenced the executive director of a U.N. watchdog after he drew attention to anti-Semitic comments made by teachers for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The council cut off U.N. Watch director Hillel Neuer as he was testifying about his watchdog's report on anti-Semitic social media posts from teachers hired by UNRWA, a refugee agency tasked with educating Palestinian children. The report revealed that a teacher in the Gaza Strip had shared a video of Adolf Hitler "to enrich and enlighten your thoughts...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett signaled to the world this week that Israel is preparing to take action against the Islamic Republic of Iran as it rapidly nears the point of having enough nuclear material to build a nuclear bomb, something that he vowed Israel would never allow to happen.Bennett told reporters on Monday following his speech at the United Nations that Iran’s march toward acquiring nuclear weapons was “unacceptable” and that Israel was not just giving “apocalyptic warnings,” but taking action “in the present” to stop it.The remarks from Bennett come as Iran has failed to live up to...

The United Nations warned Ethiopia on Friday that it has no legal right to expel seven UN officials it accused of “meddling” in the country’s affairs, as famine looms in the conflict-mired region of Tigray. A UN spokesperson said a diplomatic note sent to Ethiopia’s UN Mission and conveyed to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during a phone call with UN Secretary-General António Guterres had stated that a country’s ability to declare someone persona non grata, or unwelcome, does not apply to UN personnel. “The application of this doctrine to United Nations officials is contrary to obligations under the Charter...

SHENYANG, China -- People in northeastern China ate breakfast by the light of smartphones and shopkeepers turned on generators as much of the country enforced power cuts Wednesday to meet official conservation targets and ease shortages in some areas. News reports blame high coal prices they say make power companies reluctant to meet booming demand, while economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.... ...In Shenyang, the northeast's most populous city, restaurant owner Li Yufeng used a battery from an electric bicycle to run a pot for noodles after...

A forward-looking United Nations, which will ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war', is sine qua non On June 23, 2019 in Rome, at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN's systemic flaws became apparent. The election of the Director-General of FAO served as a grim reminder of the extent to which China had gained ground. The race for the top job ended in a stinging defeat for the US and the EU as Beijing's candidate, Qu Dongyu, won by an overwhelming majority (108 out of 191 votes). The US-backed Georgian candidate received just 12...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the world needs to change how it makes, eats and wastes food in comments to the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. “The war on our planet must end and food systems can help us build that peace,” Guterres told the UN summit in New York. Noting that food systems create one third of greenhouse gases, he said following UN sustainable goals established in 2015 could end hunger and poverty while creating global health and wealth. Guterres called for reform of agricultural subsidies and said food should not be seen “simply...

Germany and France said they and other European Union countries have nominated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia for a second term as director-general of the World Health Organization. This marks the first time that a candidate for the top job at the U.N. health agency has not been nominated by the home country. Tedros, who goes by his first name, has been in the global spotlight over the organization’s response to the coronavirus pandemic over the last 19 months -– an epochal crisis that eclipsed all else throughout his term that began in 2017. The election for the next WHO...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Leaders who are “playing” at unity and stuffing pressing problems into an overflowing bag of woe. A world that’s in the same boat, but first-class passengers get the lifeboats. A United Nations that resembles ”a retired superhero” that has lost sight of what it used to be. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy certainly wasn’t the only world leader at this week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting to paint a dire picture of international relations. But the former actor and comedian may well have painted the most colorful one. In a speech Wednesday, he called out failures in areas...

Pretend president Joe Biden sought to paint himself as an ‘aggressive leader’ willing to tackle the great issues of our day, but instead came off as stinking from his failure in Afghanistan, as a coward bowing down before Communist China, as a murderer of 7 Afghan children in drone strike, and as a minion presenting America as a sacrifice to the United Nations global authority. Did you know that the prophet Zephaniah spoke of the United Nations General Assembly, and what their coming future will be? Read it for yourself: ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the...

Nations convinced to shun Durban Conference under Israeli diplomatic pressure, spearheaded by Lapid; FM says move demonstrates Israel's political power on the world stage Thirty-one nations have so far decided to boycott a UN meeting marking the 20th anniversary of the Durban World Conference on Racism later this week due to the event's anti-Semitic nature in the past, marking a major diplomatic win for Israel. The first conference was held in Durban, South Africa from August 31 through September 8, 2001, and covered several controversial issues, including redress for transatlantic slavery and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President Biden will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday for the first time as president as world leaders gather in New York City this week. The meeting comes as Biden faces outrage from France over a new submarine deal, looming safety concerns over COVID-19 and global vaccine rates and questions about the U.S. role in the world after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Here are five things to watch as Biden addresses and meets with his counterparts.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday saying that Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers need to establish an inclusive government that has “the full, equal and meaningful participation of women" and upholds human rights.The resolution adopted by the U.N.’s most powerful body also extends the current mandate of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan for six months and delivers a clear message that its 15 members will be watching closely what the Taliban do going forward.The statement reflects widespread disappointment over the recently announced interim Taliban government that left out women and minorities, heralding what could be a return...

The U.N. human rights chief is calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights, including face-scanning systems that track people in public spaces. Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also said Wednesday that countries should expressly ban AI applications which don’t comply with international human rights law. Applications that should be prohibited include government “social scoring” systems that judge people based on their behavior and certain AI-based tools that categorize people into clusters such as by ethnicity or gender. AI-based technologies can be a force for...

The UN released a report on Thursday warning that the COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed the pace of climate change. […] In its United in Science 2021 report, global fossil-fuel CO2 emissions between January and July in the power and industry sectors were already back to the same level or higher than in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic. …

All diplomats attending the UN general assembly in New York next week will have to provide proof of vaccination, the city government has confirmed, prompting an angry response from Russia. Delegates must be vaccinated to enter the debate hall, the mayor’s office told the assembly president in a letter dated 9 September.... Russia’s ambassador...Vassily Nebenzia...described it as “a clearly discriminatory measure”, adding that preventing delegates to access the hall was a “clear violation of the UN charter”....

U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to New York next week and personally deliver an address to world leaders at the United Nations, the White House confirmed Monday, as the administration seeks to draw diplomatic a line under the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. The world’s largest diplomatic meeting, which was held virtually in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be framed around a hybrid in-person-virtual format, AFP reports.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will announce new steps to slow the spread of COVID-19 before the U.N. General Assembly meets, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Sunday. Murthy did not specify what those steps would be. The next session of the General Assembly opens Tuesday; the first day of general debate will be the following week. Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Murthy defended Biden's efforts to expand vaccination in the United States. "There will be more actions that we continue to work on, especially in the global front," he said.