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António Guterres confirmed on Monday that he will be seeking a second five-year term as UN Secretary-General, which would begin in January 2022.

Briefing correspondents at UN Headquarters in New York, his Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, confirmed that the President of the General Assembly, had written to the UN chief, asking if he intended to run for the top job again.

There needs to be a “collective commitment” to get vaccinations underway worldwide for health workers and others who are at high risk of catching COVID-19, within the next 100 days, said the UN health agency chief on Monday.

In his first major speech of the year, the UN Secretary-General underlined the need for global cooperation to address today’s challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

António Guterres was speaking on Sunday during a virtual event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first meeting of the UN General Assembly, which was held in London.

Two billion doses of “safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines” have been secured by the international equitable vaccine alliance COVAX, and they will be ready for distribution as soon they are delivered, the UN health agency chief said on Friday. 

In October 2020, Australian scientists found a detached coral reef skyscraper on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—nearly 500 meters tall and 1.5 kilometres wide—  that exceeds the height of the Eiffel Tower and New York’s Empire State Building. This was the first discovery of its kind in 120 years.

People worldwide have overwhelmingly highlighted their faith in multilateralism to address global challenges, the results of a year-long survey by the United Nations have shown. 

Urgent measures are needed to protect civilian aircraft flying over conflict zones or other areas where military tensions are high, a UN independent human rights expert said on Thursday. 

Agnès Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, made the appeal ahead of the first anniversary of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752. 

Saudi Arabia’s action in lifting sanctions against Qatar is a “positive first step” towards normalized relations in the Gulf region, a UN independent human rights expert said on Thursday, urging the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt to follow suit. 

“The Beirut port explosion was an explosion of hearts,” says 40-year-old Farah. “This explosion burnt our hearts.” Farah is speaking of the massive explosion that rocked Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, on 4 August. Over 200 people died, and thousands more were injured. The source of the blast was a large quantity of ammonium nitrate—a compound used to make explosives—that had been stored in unsafe conditions. 

The killing of civilians in separate car bomb attacks in northern Syria on Saturday has been condemned by top UN humanitarian officials for the country. 

The first blast occurred in Ras al-Ain, when a car bomb exploded in a market area on a main road, killing two children and injuring their mother and several others.  At least three shops were also damaged. 

The second incident took place near a bakery in Jinderis, located in northwest rural Aleppo.  One person was reportedly killed, while two children were among the casualties.