UN Updates

As amber heat-health alerts spread across England this summer, a new study has found that the warnings are being received – but not changing behaviour.

The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the fastest-growing on record and on track to become the deadliest – is killing one person every 30 minutes.

Humanitarians continue to provide life-saving assistance to people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite facing obstacles such as checkpoints, instability and access restrictions, the United Nations said on Friday. 

Across the world, healthcare has suffered more than 10,000 attacks in the past eight years, including during the brutal conflict in Ukraine and efforts to contain the current Ebola outbreak spreading rapidly in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

Authorities in Iran intercepted 3,663 kilogrammes of methamphetamines headed for Europe and the Persian Gulf in the first quarter of 2026, according to the UN’s drugs and crime fighting agency (UNODC).

Sudanese women about to give birth are losing their babies and sometimes their own lives because of a lack of specialist healthcare support, amid the ongoing war, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

In one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake that struck Colombia, hundreds of people are still waiting for news of missing relatives, friends and neighbours.

New satellite assessments show the destruction of buildings in Gaza has climbed by nearly 10 per cent since October’s faltering ceasefire between Hamas and Israeli forces aim to end the two-year war, which reduced cities to rubble and displaced more than one million people, UN agencies said on Thursday.

Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are tracking a growing share of people exposed to Ebola, but the epidemic in the country’s restive east continues to outpace their ability to find and isolate the sick, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Five years since the Taliban seized power in Kabul, life for some Afghans has improved while many others suffer growing hardship.